129269
THE
of
REV. S. BARING-GOULD
SIXTEEN VOLUMES
VOLUME THE FOURTH
I
Hi
of t!)e
BY THE
REV. S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.
New Edition in 16 Volumes
Revised with Introduction and Additional Lives of
English Martyrs, Cornish and Welsh Saints,
and a full Index to the Entire Work
ILLUSTRATED BY OV&R 400 ENGRAVINGS
VOLUME THE FOURTH
LONDON'
JOHN C. NIMMO
NEW YORK: LONGMANS, GREEN, 6r CO.
MDCCCXCVMX
CONTENTS
S. Abundius .... 24
SS* Acepsimas and comp. 298
Achilles and comp. 300
S. Adalbert . . . .311
SS. African Martyrs . . 73
Atfape and comp. . 34
Agat hopu sand Then-
dulus , . . . 6 1
S. Albert 114
Alphas .... 229
Atiastasius . . , 353
Anicetus . . . .219
Ansclm. , . . .261
Anthimius .... 353
SS, Antia and Eleutho-
rius 223
S. Antipas 136
Aphranlcs, . . .112
SS. Aphrodistus and
comp. . . . , 358
S. Apphian , ... 12
Appollonius . . . 224
Ardalio 189
SS. Asyncritus and
comp 121
S. Aya 226
SS. Azades and comp. . 298
B
S, Basil of Amasca. . 350
Bode the YounKer , 132
Benedict the Black 59
Bcnct of the Bridge 198
S. Calliopius . . . .no
Caradoc . . . .185
SS, Carpus and comp. . 180
S. Catherine of Sienna 377
"""""""
VI
Contents
I'.\GK
S. Celestine I. ... 94
Cclsus ..... ro6
SS. Chionia and comjx . 34
Sb CIctus ..... 343
Cronan ..... 361
I)
S. Dndas ..... iSi
., Daniel ..... .$25
SS. Didymus ;iml Thi.o-
dora ..... ,^5M
S. Dionysius . . . .122
Domnan and rump. 220
Donatus .... 373
n Hrogo ..... 217
E
I). Eburfanlt. . . .114
S. K^ton ..... 3-7
SS. Eloutht'rius and
Antia . . . 223
H. Klmo . . . 20$
S. Krkonwold . .375
Krminc. . . . 34-
n Eupsyrhius
Kutroimi* .
SS. Kutycncsamlnmij*.
SS. Krlix and romp.
S. Fuldis of
370
** 2
fromnnon . . . 376
SS. Kiirtunatn:' am
coiup. . . .
S. !' rant-in if Paula
Frtmto iHy
,. PrtK'lUOKUS . . .211
t;
S. (if
n tSc
Ca-rokl
74
S. Gilbert of Caithiu 1 -- 10
., (Jodclxrriha . . . if-,;
.. Ciundelicrt. . . .v<4
.. < In thine. . . .1*';
M
SS. Iforntaj nr.il cvtmp. 121
S. IIvniK'ni^'M . . .i.? 1 .;
SS. IkTnrlian.i::*'.* r:.;j\ 121
S. Hikic^aul* . . . 37;
. .
., Htijjh nf GrvnohK . 7
1
S. iUir ... , ,;itJ
SS. Irniv an* 1 , romp, . t ?4
S. I^ittnru nf.Si!v:l!i , (.4
j
SS. Janu's ami t.*<m]i. . ;^t
S. John of IluLir . , ^1.;
n Jost'ph the liynu.i"
Kraphrr. , . . 4 X
n Juliana. .... 7^
I.
S, lotM-iian , ;.-4
Lintlhr i'tfr.tt , i;r
1-niIX ...... .M,;
(< Lnlwytia . , . . t**
. , . . 3M
M
S. Maranu^tklAiiliiwit i \$
., MariaM r
hukl
Contents
vn
PAGE
S. Magnus . . . .211
Marcellinus, Pope . 345
Marcellinus of Em-
brun 251
Marcellinus of Car-
thage .... 89
SS. Marian, James, and
comp 371
S. Mark, Evang. . . 334
SS. Maro and comp. . 199
Martyrs of Africa . 73
Martyrs of Sara-
gossa .... 208
SS. Mary of Egypt and
Zosimus . . . 15
S. Mary, wife of
Cleopas. . . .124
MaximusofEphesus 369
SS. Maximusand Olym-
pias 200
Maximus, Quinti-
lian, and comp, , 181
S. Mellitus .... 326
Musa 24
N
S. Nicetas 39
B. Notker Balbulus . 95
Vcn. Ode 252
SS. Olytnpiasand Maxi-
mus 200
P
S. Padarn 200
Panms . . . . 33
B, Peter Gonzalez . , 205
S. Peter Martyr. . . 366
SS* Phlegon and romp. 121
S. Plato 69
Prorhonts , . . .130
Prutlentius . . . 362
VOI,, IV.
Q
S. Quintilian .
R
PAGE
. 181
Chi-
S. Richard of
Chester .... 49
Richarius .... 352
Robert of Molesme 366
Ruadan .... 202
Rudolf 221
S. Sabas the Goth . .176
Senan 364
Severus .... 374
Simeon of Ctesi-
phon 260
Sixtus, Pope ... 89
Stephen Harding . 220
S. Theodora of Rome
SS. Theodora and Di
dymus ...
S. Theodosia ...
SS. Theodulus and Aga
thopus ...
S. Theot mius . . .
Tighernach . .
Trudpert ...
Turibius ...
U
S, Ulpian
Urbicius
359
14
6r
251
62
351
210
38
38
V
SS, Valeria and Vitalis 357
S. Vasius ..... 210
Victor of Braga . . 175
6
vm
Contents
I'AGK
SS. Victor, Zolicus, and
comp, .... 250
Victorinus and
comp. . . . -190
S. Vincent nfQilnhorra 237
Vinceni Kcrrior . . 8;
SS. Vitalis and Valeria . 357
\V
S. Walaricof Lcuronny 3
Walter 122
PAr.i;
S. Waltrudis . . . .131
Werner 248
X
S. Xysius (Sixt! N . . 89
7.
S. 7eno of Verona . . 17:
^ /.ila 35 \
SS. Xnsini!i5 and Man". 15
/.oticus ami com pi . 2:0
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MON-
STRANCE Frontispiece
GROUP OF ANGELS , onp.n
S, MARY OF EGYPT, THE CHIEF EVENTS OF
HER LIFE to face p. 16
From a Window in the Cathedral of Bourges.
S, FRANCIS OF PAULA ,,24
After CAHIKR.
ORGAN OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY . 72
S. VINCENT FF.RRIER . 88
After CAHIER.
THE THREE MARIES AT THE TOMB . . ,, 128
From ti Fresco in the Cathedral of Albi*
PORTION OF A MONSTRANCE . onp. 135
S. LKO THE GREAT to face p. 150
S. GODKIJKRTHA 162
S. IlKKMENIGILD ,,182
Ajttr CAHIKK.
List of Illustrations
S. HERMENKULD ......
/'Vw* Engraving designed by HANS Ht'RJKMAlR.
S. BENET OF THK BRIDGE .... 198
,/f/frr CAHIKK.
S. PETER GONZALEZ OR EI.MO . ., 2*M
S. STEPHEN HARDING, ABBOT ... 220
Fr&w a Drawing fy A. WKI.IIV Ptroix,
S. Al.l'HKCJK ....... ,.232
THE Cun.nkKX IN THK Fir.uv FVICNACI: . turf. 259
S. ("IKOKOK (AY p. 301)
S. SI:;NORIN
-KV*'*' \HIKU.
S. PlUKLIR OK SllSMAKlXni'fl ,
S, MAKK, KvANft^usr
S. PKTKR MAKTVU
S. CATUKKINM w SH-NXA
rK S, MARK *>*/*, 334 , . . w^, jx*
r
* ........... - *
ERRATA.
Page I, Calendar, line io,/or '. A.D. 1211 ' read ' A.D. 1245.
10, Jinc 29, for * (ABOUT A.D. z2n)'/vw/ c (A.a Z24S).'
V. //M
LIVES OF THE SAINTS
April 1.
S. THEODORA, V.M* at Rome, A.D. 132.
S. VENANTIUS, J3.M. in Istria or Dalmatia.
SS. VICTOR AND STEPHEN, MM. in Egypt
S. WALARIC, A&. ofLeuconaty, circ. A.D. 619
S. LEVCONIUS, J3. ofTroyes, circ. A.D. 665.
S. DODOLIN, B, ofVienne, jthcent.
S. MACARIUS, Ab. at Cotistantinople, circ, A.D. 830.
S. JOHN, B. of Naples, A.D. 833-
S. HUGH, B. of Grenoble, A.D. 1132.
S. GILBKRT, B. ofCaithuesS) circ. A.D. zazi.
S. THEODORA, V.M.
(A.D. 132.)
[Roman Martyrology and those of Ado, Usuardus, Notker, &c. Her
brother, S. Hermes, on Aug. a8th. Authority : The Acts of S. Alexander,
Pope (May 3rd), which are by no means trustworthy.]
JHE legend of S. Theodora, as contained in the
apocryphal acts of S. Alexander, is as follows.
During the reign of this great Pope, Hermes,
prefect of the city, was converted to Christ
with his wife, Exuperia, and his sister, Theodora, and all
his house, to the number of twelve hundred souls. At
that time Aurelian was governor of the city under the
emperor Hadrian. No sooner did he hear of this marvellous
conversion than he sent for Hermes, and ordered him
into the prisons of a tribune, named Quirinus. Hermes
VOL IV. T
*
2 Lives of the Saints. [April z.
was now deserted by all his friends and servants. Theodora
his sister was alone faithful. She went with him to
prison, accompanied him to the tribunal, and was present
at his tortures, encouraging him with her exhortations.
Quirinus the tribune (March soth), and his daughter,
Balbina, were converted by the example of the brother
and sister; and Balbina, having been healed of the king's
evil by placing about her neck the chains of S. Peter,
was baptized by S. Alexander (see March 3ist). When
S. Hermes had suffered for the faith, Theodora, assisted
by Balbina, recovered his body, and gave it decent burial.
When S. Balbina was arrested, she gave the chains of S.
Peter into the custody of her friend, who was, however,
called to follow her the very next day.
When brought before Aurelian, she was asked what
had become of the great wealth of her brother. She
answered, "My brother's goods, and my own have been
distributed among the poor, and now all that I have to
give to my Lord Jesus Christ is this poor weak body of
mine, which I yield up joyfully."
This reply having irritated the magistrate, he ordered
her to be beaten, and then executed. The Christians took
up her body, and laid it in the cemetery on the Salarian
way.
Her body, extracted from this catacomb by Pope
Alexander VI I. , was given by him to the Ursuline Con-
vent at Caen. However, the Barnabites of Bologna claim
to have her body in the Church of S. Paul, other portions
of the relics being in the Church of All Saints, in the
same town.
*
April i.i . Walaric.
S. WALARIC, AB. OF LEUCONAY.
(ABOUT A.D. 619.)
[Roman Martyrology, and those of Ado and Usuardus, but in some
editions on Dec. rath. Authority : A life written originally by Abbot
Ragimbert, who succeeded him at no great distance of time ; but this life
has not reached us in its integrity, having been re-written by a monk of
Luxeuil in the nth century.]
WALARIC, in French Val'ery> was a native of Auvergne,
and his boyhood was spent among the old volcanic cones,
and by the circular lakes that occupy the exhausted craters,
pasturing his sheep. But there was something in the
mountain scenery, a voice in the pine woods, that spoke
to his soul, and bade it quiver, as the little spines of the
fir tremble when the wind arises. He knew not for what
he felt the stirring of his heart; whither the voice called
him.
The first strong desire in his childish breast was a
craving to know his letters. And so, whilst his sheep
browsed in the grass beside the black tarns, he laboured
with a little slate and a book to learn to read and write.
Then he went further ; he procured a psalter, and in the
mountain pastures found place and opportunity to learn
by heart the glorious psalms of the Shepherd-king. And
now, in David's words, the deepest cravings of his soul
found their utterance. He could not rest, but took refuge
in a monastery where lived an uncle of his, and there he
made rapid progress in virtue and knowledge. So great
was his modesty, so sweet and gentle his disposition,
that all loved him j he carried the freshness of his moun-
tain air, the sweetness of his mountain thyme, with him
into the cloister.
After some years, he went to the monastery of S.
Aunacharius, at Auxerre; and thence, stirred by the
tidings that reached him of the saintly life led by the
*
Lives of the Saints.
monks of Luxeuil under the great Columbanus, and I
think it not unlikely, with an undefined, unexpressed
longing for rock and pine and blue mountains once more,
he took his staff in hand, and with a faithful comrade,
Bobbo, went to Columbanus, and was with the great
Irish abbot till Queen Brunehild drave him from his
retreat, scattered the two hundred and twenty monks who
obeyed his rule, and gave the abbey into the hands of
seculars. Walaric now laboured with the Blessed Eustace
(March 29th), to collect the scattered sheep and replace them
in the fold of Luxeuil, which they connived to persuade
the seculars to vacate for them. And so time passed.
Now after a while a monk named Waldelin felt called
to undertake a mission to the heathen, and S. Walaric
resolved to accompany him. They asked permission of
King Clothair III., who governed that portion of France
called Neustria, and the king, with the consent of S.
Bercundus, bishop of Amiens, sent them to Leuconay,
near the mouth of the Somme, to labour at the extirpation
of the heathenism which still reigned there.
The two missionaries built a hermitage and cells, and
the bishop came to them every Lent to spend with them
the forty days in retreat. By degrees monks assembled
around them, and Leuconay became a flourishing colony.
The historian records several instances of S. Wakric's gift
of seeing into and reading the hidden acts of others. One
man he rebuked for approaching the Blessed Sacrament
after he had drank a measure of wine at home, which
his wife had offered him. A boy was sent by his mother
with oblations (eulogiae) of bread and bottles of wine, and
the lad, boy-like, took toll of the food and drink on the
way. This S. Walaric detected, and gave the boy a sharp
rebuke.
As he was riding on his ass one day at Auxy*le-Chaenu.
April i.] ,S. Walaric.
he saw on the bank of the little river Authe a huge stump
of wood covered with rude sculptures, which the people
of that part venerated with pagan rites. Fired with zeal,
Walaric ordered the boy who accompanied him to knock
the stump over; the boy put his hand to it, and the
bottom being very rotten, the' piece of wood rolled over.
Some peasants rushed up, in great wrath, and would have
done an injury to the man of God, or his servant, had
he not arrested their arms by his mild remonstrances, and
the incident enabled him to convert the neighbourhood
One day he turned in to warm himself at the fire of
the priest at Cayeux, a little town or village on the coast,
for it was winter, and the old man was numb with cold.
The priest was then entertaining the magistrate of that
part of the country, and the two were making merry, by
relating to each other extremely indecent stories, and
cutting many a foul joke.
Walaric remained for some moments warming his hands
and listening in a sort of amaze, hardly realising what these
two men were saying. Then suddenly he burst forth with
" My children, for every idle word ye shall give account
at the day of judgment"
But they, nothing heeding, continued their unseemly
- conversation ; and Walaric, colouring like fire, caught up
his stick, left the fire-place, shook off the snow from his
feet against the evil house, and fled away through the
biting cold, and the dark night, rather than remain and
listen to such words. For he was a man of most simple
and modest mind, and the knowledge of sin filled him
with indescribable pain. And ever was his face bright
and amiable, and as the thought of God, and the love
of Jesus kindled his soul, his face was wont to become
red as a rose. So gentle was he also, that the sparrows
would come and feed in Iris hand, and allow him to
6 Lives of the Saints. [April i.
caress them with his aged and trembling fingers. And if
the sparrows were pecking up the crumbs that had fallen
from the monastery table, " Stand back, my sons," said the
abbot to his monks, "and let the little birds have their
dinner in peace."
There was a little hill near Leuconay, which he loved
to ascend, and where he often spent long time under a ;
great tree, musing or praying. Perhaps that little hill,
the only rising ground above the sand-flats, was dear to \
him as faintly recalling his hills of Auvergne, or the Jura :
near Luxeuil ; or perhaps it was because thence he could '
see the dark blue sea beyond the white sands, and it
spoke to him with the same mysterious voice as did the
rocks and pines afore. From whatever reason it was, he
loved that little hill, and one day he led some of his
monks to it, pointed to the foot of the tree, and prayed ;
them to lay him there. Next day, a Sunday, he died, and j
under that tree the old abbot was laid. ;
Some years after his death his monastery was ruined,
in the civil wars that desolated France, but it was restored
by S. Blithmund, his disciple and successor, who had
retired to Bobbio. The new Church was erected with
great magnificence, and the body of S. Walaric was laid in
it. In 1200 the body of S. Walaric was taken into
Normandy to a little town that has since borne his name,
S. Valery, between Dieppe and Fecamp. The relics were
afterwards restored to their former resting-place, now called
S. Valery-sur-Somme. At the Revolution in j 793, the
body of the saint was burnt in the choir of the Church,
One bone alone was preserved by the piety of a woman,
and is now enshrined at S. Valery, of which city he is
patron, as he is also of the mariners on that coast.
Dec. 1 2th is observed as the Feast of the Translation
of his relics.
L _ ^y,
* " " " """* "" W
Apm i.] S. Hugh. 7
S. HUGH, B. OF GRENOBLE.
(A.D. 1132.)
[Gallican Martyrology, Wytford, Greven, and Molanus, in their additions
to Usuardus, Maurolycus, Wyon, and Roman Martyrology. Authority :
His life written at the command of Pope Innocent XL, by his contemporary,
Guigo, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse. S. Hugh was inscribed among the
Saints by Innocent IL, in 1134, two years after his death.]
ABOVE Ch&teauneuf, near Valence, in Dauphine*, on a
height, stand the crumbling walls of an old castle, called
at the present day the Castle of S. Hugh. Here, in the
middle of the eleventh century, lived a nobleman named
Odillo de Ch&teauneuf, who was twice married, and had
several children by his second wife, amongst others Hugh,
the subject of this memoir. Both Odillo and his wife
were pious and upright people, and the example of these
good parents awoke in the heart of the little Hugh his
first love and fear of God. Hugh was sent to school at
Valence, but not content with the instructions he received
there, he left his home and country to seek learning abroad.
On his return to Valence he was provided with a pre-
bendal stall in the Cathedral Church, where he conducted
himself with such modesty and virtue that Hugh, bishop of
S. Die, afterwards archbishop of Lyons, having been
nominated papal legate in France, chose Hugh to assist
him in the labours of his legation. He followed the legate
to Lyons, and thence to Avignon, and during the session of
the council there, dignitaries came from Grenoble to inform
him of his election by the clergy of that see to the
bishopric. Though prebendary of Valence, he was not yet
in Holy Orders, and the announcement, filled him with
terror. But the legate insisted on his accepting the prof-
fered see, conferred on him all orders up to ,that of
priesthood, and persuaded Hugh to accompany him to
Rome, that he might receive episcopal consecration from
8 Lives of the Saints.
the hands of the Pope, as Varmond, archbishop of Vienne,
his metropolitan, had obtained his promotion by bribery,
and Hugh was unwilling to receive orders and mission
from a simoniacal prelate.
Whilst at Rome, on the very day of his consecration,
Hugh was terribly beset with a temptation to blasphemy,
the first cutting of a sharp spiritual cross which weighed
on him through the rest of his life, causing him inde-
scribable anguish of soul. It seems to have been a horrible
doubt wherewith Satan sought to cut at the root of the
abundant charity and faith of the holy man. In his agony
of soul, Hugh threw himself into the arms of the legate,
his dear friend and director, and implored him to deliver
him from the burden of the obligation about to be laid
upon him. The bishop of S. Die consoled and encouraged
his suffering son, and bade him go and tell all his trouble
to the Pope. He did so, and the Holy Father received
him with such tenderness, and gave him such excellent
advice, that he went away calmed and cheered. He was
then consecrated, the Countess Mathilda, the liberal bene-
factress of -the Holy See, furnishing all that was necessary
for the ceremony, and presenting the young bishop with his
pastoral staff, and two books, the commentary on the
Psalms by S. Augustine, and the Book of Offices of S.
Ambrose. After his ordination S. Hugh at once left Home, ,
and betook himself to his diocese, which he found in the
most deplorable condition. " He found the clergy and the
people very rude and undisciplined in divine things, so
that, not only the lower orders of clergy, but even the
priests married wives, celebrating their nuptials publicly,
the laity buying and selling sacred things, churches, obla-
tions, tithes, and cemeteries, and the priests subject to their
dominations." With infinite labour, with zeal and tender-
ness, and more by his own example than by any oilier
S. Hugh.
means, Hugh succeeded in raising the moral and religious
tone of the clergy and laity of his diocese. The revenues
of the see had all been dissipated, its land sold to the
nobles by his predecessors, and he was left almost without
means of subsistence, because he would not receive fees
for the administration of sacraments and collation to livings.
Sick at heart and despairing of effecting a reformation,
knowing also his faults and need of self-discipline, for he
was only twenty-seven years old, he retired after two years'
labour into the monastery of Chaise-Dieu, of -the Order of
Cluny, and assumed the Benedictine habit But Gregory
VII., hearing of his flight, sent him peremptory orders to
return to his duties, and with a sigh and many tears he
bade farewell to the peaceful cloister, and returned to that
which weighed on him daily, the care of all his Churches.
He had spent but a year in Chaise-Dieu, but his soul was
refreshed thereby.
Three years after his return to Grenoble, S. Bruno,
accompanied by six friends, visited him, to ask for some
retired spot in which he might lay the foundations of his
Order. S. Hugh received him with joy. Up among the
itains was a desert basin he had once visited, only
reached by a toilsome scramble through one of the wildest
and narrowest of gorges in the Dauphine' Alps. In dream,
Hugh had once seen seven stars shining over the white
peaks that enclosed this valley. Surely these seven men
were signified by the stars in his vision ! He conducted
S. Bruno to this solitude, and there the seven laid the
foundations of the world-famous monastery of the Grande
Chartreuse. Often did the bishop come to this mountain
retreat, from the noise and strife of tongues of the outer
world, to slake the thirst of his parched soul there. So
poorly lodged were these first hermits, that two occupied
the same cell. The monk with whom S. Hugh was placed
nidtani
s^ V*AO f^r\ c
*-
io Lives of the Saints.
complained that the bishop treated him as his superior.
So great was Hugh's zeal for holy poverty, that he would
have sold his horses, and gone on foot through his diocese,
preaching, catechising, and conferring sacraments, had not
S. Bruno dissuaded him, because such an action would
have had an air of singularity, and because it would have
been impossible for him properly to visit his mountainous
diocese without riding.
S. Hugh set his face against a practice, then not un-
common, of hearing women's confessions in private rooms
and vestries, but insisted, so as to avoid scandal, on their
being heard in Church, where priest and penitent were
visible to the whole congregation.
In vain did S. Hugh, after many years of bearing all the
people on his shoulders, implore Popes Gelasius II,
Calixtus II., and Honorius II, to relieve him of his charge.
The latter told him that he preferred to see him, old and
bawed down with sickness, shepherding his flock, rather
man any young and active man.
At length the Great Shepherd Himself released him from
his labours on April ist, 1132, at the age of eighty, fifty-two
of which had been spent in charge of his see. He was
buried in the Church of Notre Dame at Grenoble, and was
canonised on April 22nd, 1134, two years after his death.
His relics were burnt in the i6th century, when the Baron
des Adrets took Grenoble, and all the churches were gives
up to be pillaged by the Huguenots.
S. GILBERT, B. OF CAITHNESS.
(ABOUT A.D. 1211.)
[Aberdeen Breviary. Authorities : -The lessons in the same, Hector
Boece and David Camerarius.]
S. GILBERT, a native of Moray, became archdeacon of
*
April i.] S. Gilbert. n
Moray. Hugh, Cardinal legate of the Pope, having come
to England and summoned all the Scottish bishops to meet
him at Northampton, in council, there informed them
that they were thenceforth to become sufiragans of York.
Then Gilbert, at that time a young man, fired with indig-
nation, started up and exclaimed, " From the first dawn of
Christianity hi Scotland, we were a free Church, and now
shall we Scots be subjected to an alien, an English arch-
bishop. It shall not be I" The Papal legate, unable to
carry the point, dissolved the council, and the bishops
returned to Scotland. The unruly diocesans of Aidan,
bishop of Caithness, having killed their bishop, King
Alexander III. took a horrible revenge, mutilating all males
in the diocese to the fourth and fifth generation. S. Gilbert,
the doughty champion of Scottish liberties against Anglican
encroachments, was then appointed to this see.
1 2 Lives of the Saints. [April
April 2.
S. APPHIAN, M, at Casarea, in Palestine, A.D. 306.
S. THEODOSIA, V*M. at Ceesarea, in Palestine, A.D. 308.
S. ABUNDIUS, B. qfComo, A.D. 468.
S. MARY OF EGYPT, AND S. ZOSIMUS, Ab. in Syria, 6t/t cent.
S. MUSA, V. at Rome, f>th cent.
S. NICBTIUS, B. of Lyons, A.D. 573.
S. EBBA, V. Abss. Coldingham } A.D. 870 (see August 25).
S. FRANCIS OF PAUX-A, Founder of the Order of Minims, A.D. 1508.
S. APPHIAN, M.
(A.D. 306.)
[Roman and almost all Latin Martyrologies, also the Greek Mensea,
Authority : Eusebius, in his History of the Martyrs of Palestine, c. 4
Eusebius was an eye-witness of -what he describes.]
JJURING the persecution of Maximirms Csesar,
afterwards Emperor, in Palestine, among many
other sufferers, Apphian, " that blessed and in-
nocent lamb," as Eusebius calls him, " presented
a wondrous example of solid piety towards the One true
God, and was made a spectacle to all men before the gates
of Csesarea." He was born at Pagas, in Lycia, and he
studied at the great legal school of Berytus, where says
Eusebius, "notwithstanding the enticements of youthful
passions, he rose superior to all, and was neither corrupted
in morals by the vehemence of his animal nature, nor by
his association with young men, but embraced a modest
and sober life, walking honestly and piously, and ruling
his conversation as one who had embraced the Christian
Faith/' After his return to Pagas from Berytus, he met
with great persecution in his family, because his father and
kindred did not approve of his strict conduct : and at last
finding it impossible to endure their perverse manners any
longer, he scarcely fled away, and came to Csesarea, when
*-
-*
* *
April 2.] . ,51 Apphian. 13
he became a disciple of Eusebius, the historian and chroni-
cler of his passion. "There associated with us, he studied
the Holy Scriptures as much as possible in so short a time,
and having prepared himself most cheerfully by the pro-
per exercises and discipline, he finally made so illustrious
an end, that it could not be witnessed again without
amazement."
Apphian was then aged only twenty, and when persecu-
tion broke out, moved by zeal rather than by discretion,
he interrupted the governor, Urbanus, whilst he was mak-
ing libations, by seizing his right hand, and denouncing the
worship of idols. He was immediately taken and scourged
by the soldiers, and having been covered with wounds, was
cast into prison. There he was stretched for a night and
day, on the rack. On his next appearance before the
judge, "he exhibited an invincible fortitude in bearing pain
and horrid tortures. His sides were not only once or twice,
but often furrowed and scraped to the very bones and
bowels, and he was so beaten about the face and neck, that
those who had known him well did not recognise his
bruised and swollen face. But as he did not yield even to
this, they covered his feet with linen steeped in oil, and, at
the command of the governor, the tormentors applied fire
to them. The sufferings which this blessed youth then en-
dured, seem to me to exceed all power of description. The
fire, after consuming his flesh, penetrated to the bones, so
that the humours of the body, liquified like wax, fell in
drops ' } but as he did not yield even to this, his antagonists
at a loss to account for his superhuman perseverance,
committed him again to prison. He was summoned again
the third day before the judge and still declaring his fixed
purpose of professing Christ, already half dead, he was
thrown into the sea, and drowned. " What happened im-
mediately after this, would scarcely be credited by any who
*
14 Lives of the Saints.
had not seen it with his own eyes. All the inhabitants
of Caesarea were witnesses of the fact we relate. As soon
as the holy youth was cast into the sea, suddenly a roaring
and crashing sound were heard in the sea and air ; and the
earth and city were shaken. And at the same moment,
the sea cast up the body of the martyr before the gates of
the city. This took place on the fourth of the nones of
April, on the day of the preparation, or Friday." This was
either April 5th, A.D, 306, or April and, A.D. 308.
S. THEODOSIA, V.M.
(A.D. 308.)
[By the Greeks on April 3rd, and May agth ; on April 3rd, in the ancient
Martyrology attributed to S. Jerome. On the 2nd, by the Roman Martyr-
ology, and by that of Ado. Authority : Eusebius, in his Hist, of the
Martyrs of Palestine, c. 7.]
EUSEBIUS thus describes the martyrdom of Theodosia, of
which he was eye-witness. "The persecution had now
extended to the fifth year, when on the fourth of the nones
of April, on the very day of our Lord's Resurrection, a
virgin of Tyre, named Theodosia, not yet aged eighteen,
distinguished by her faith and virtue, in Csesorea, ap-
proached some prisoners, confessors of Christ, seated before
the judgment-seat, with the purpose of apparently saluting
them, and entreating them to remember her when they ap-
peared before the Lord. Whilst she was so doing, she
was seized by the soldiers, and led before the commander.
Presently, merciless and savage as he was, he had her tor-
tured with dreadful cruelties, furrowing her sides and breasts
with instruments, to the very bones, and then ordered her,
yet breathing, and withal cheerful of countenance, to be
cast into the sea."
Her relics were removed to Constantinople, where May
April 2.] SS. Mary & Zosimus. 1 5
2 Qth was observed as the feast of the translation. The
body was said to have been enshrined by Roger, Abbot of
Dervum, in the monastery Church of Moutier en Der, on
the Voire. But a portion of the body is also said to have
been brought from the East and presented to the Cathedral
of Lidge, in the time of Notker. However the entire body
of S. Theodosia is shown at Bologna by the Trinitarians
and another entire body, also asserted to be that of the
Virgin Martyr of Caesarea is preserved at Salvatierra, near
Vittoria in the north of Spain.
S. MARY OF EGYPT, AND S. ZOSIMUS, AB.
(6TH. CENT.)
[By the Greeks on April ist, and S. Zosimus on April 4th. Anciently
the Roman Martyrology on the Qth ; Usuardus on the and ; Barordus, in
re-arranging the Roman Martyrology, followed Usuardus. S. Zosimus is
given by Peter de Natalibus, Maurolycus and Wytford on the 30th ;
Alban Butler gives both S. Mary the Egyptian, and S. Zosimus on the Qth.
The best, and only really trustworthy authority is a mention in the life of S.
Cyriacus (d. 556) written by his disciple Cyril of Scythopolis. Cyriacus
inhabited tne desert' beyond Jordan, where none had penetrated before.
One day two of his disciples, penetrating further into the wilderness saw a
human being moving among the bushes ; but when they went to look, it
had disappeared. Then, thinking it was a snare of the devil, they prayed,
and after that they found the figure again, in a cave, and when they would
have approached, it cried to them not to come near, for she was a woman
and was naked. They asked her who she was, and she replied that she
was a grievous sinner named Mary, who had lived as a public singer and
player on musical instruments, and had waxed wanton, and led many into
gross sin ; but touched by repentance, she had retired into the wilderness
to expiate her guilt. The two disciples returned to the monastery and
related what they had seen to S. Cyriacus ; and after some time, they went
again to see her, and lo, she was lying dead in her cavern. Then they
brought spades from the laura of Susac, and buried her where she had died.
This story by a contemporary author is perfectly authentic, but the same
.cannot be said for the Greek Acts of S. Mary of Egypt, which are a romance
founded on fact. The author of this life has used up the story told by the
monks of S. Cyriacus, and has added to it what was traditionally reported,
* - *
1 6 Lives of the Saints.
and has supplied the details from his own imagination, for the purpose of
making the narrative interesting and edifying. The framework of the
story is artificial, and the narrative of S. Mary given by her to the monk
Zozimus is unquestionably th<j composition of the author of the life, who
has filled it with ejaculations, apologies, and has even recorded the prayers
made by the penitent on her conversion. This life is attributed by
Nicephorus Callistus (d. 1341) to S. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem
(d. 639), but Papebroeck has disputed this, and claims for the life a higher
antiquity by 150 years. S. Gregory the Great in one of his letters to the
priest Candidus, (about 596} alludes to lions burying S. Paul the first
hermit "and S. Mary of Egypt," but these few words may be, and most
probably are, an addition by a transcriber. There is much to be said in
favour of the authorship by S. Sophronius. He makes much in the story
of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem, of which he was patriarch, and he is also
the author of two orations on the Cross. His friend, John Moschus, was
long in the monastery of S. Sabas, which S. Cyril of Scythopolis the original
narrator of the incident inhabited for long. S. John Damascene attributes
the famous Spiritual Meadow, a collection of lives of the Fathers of the
Desert, to S. Sophronius, and it is probable that he assisted his master
John Moschus in composing it. The life of S. Mary the Egyptian may well
be by the same hand which wrote the lives of so many other desert dwell-
ers. The Life of S. Mary of Egypt gives no very certain indication of a
date except one passage, which materially differs in the Greek text from the
early Latin translation, and which fixes her death upon the ist April, being
then Good Friday ; this will agree with the year 421 chosen by the Bolland-
ists, and with 423, 427, 511, 516 or 522. I think one of these latter is more
probable, as it will permit of reconciliation with the story in the life of S.
Cyriacus. But if the early Latin version of the date be correct, Good
Friday, April and, then the date may be either 443, 454, 527, 538, or 549 ;
either of these latter dates would fit in with the the time of IS. Cyriacus
better than 522.
The writer of the life plainly states that he derived his information from j
long tradition. He says, " the monks continued to hold this narrative by i
tradition, and to narrate it to those desiring to hear something tending to '
edification, and I, knowing letters, committed it to writing. Possibly others i,
before may have written the life of the holy woman , much more magni- ,
ficcntly and sublimely than I have done, though I have not nn*t with such
a life, therefore I have written it as best I could, wibhing to add nothing to ;
the truth." ;
The Greek life was early translated into Latin, it is supposed by Paulus j
Diaconus (d. 797). A metrical paraphrase was made by Hildvbert, R. of
Mans, and afterwards of Tours (d. 1233). Portions of an Anglo-Saxon ;
translation from the Latin have been published in " Gloucester Fragments," j
by J, Karle, London, 1863, and an ancient Spanish version by Mussutiu, |
Vienna, 1863. j
-*
MABY OP EGYPT, THE CHIEF EVENTS OP HER LIFE.
From a Window in toe Cathedral of Bourges.
[April 2.
April 2.] .S^S. Mary & Zosimus. 1 7
The Life of S. Mary of Egypt was quoted in the second council of Nicsea,
on the cultus of images, A.D. 787.]
THERE lived a holy anchorite named Zosimus in Palestine.
He had been educated from childhood in the monastery,
having ever before his eyes the most perfect way. And as
the fame of his sanctity spread abroad, as the perfume of a
flower attracts the bees, so did his virtue draw about him a
swarm of disciples, to gather the honey of doctrine and ex-
ample from his lips and life.
But now, so it was, that his heart was lifted up, and he
thought that he had attained to a high state of perfection.
Then one day a stranger told him that near Jordan dwelt a
company of holy men who served God in a closer walk
than he. Now when he heard this, he went forth and
sought, till he found this monastery of which the stranger
had spoken. And as he dwelt with these holy solitaries
and saw their conversation, he was humble in his heart, and
he tare up the roots of self-esteem which had grown in his
breast
Now it was the custom of these solitaries, on the first
Sunday in Lent, after having partaken of the Holy Mys-
teries to meet for a light refection, and then, having given
one another the kiss of peace, to depart into the wilderness
in procession, chanting the psalm, " The Lord is my light
and my salvation, whom then shall I fear; The Lord is the
strength of my life ; of whom then shall I be afraid." And
when all had passed over Jordan they dispersed through
the desert, carrying with them such food as they needed,
and met not again till Palm Sunday. And during all the
time, each monk followed his own rule, and none had to
give an account to their Superior of how they had practised
Lent. And this they did, that they might have God only
as witness to their penitence, lest some should be puffed up,
and others should be cast down.
VOL. IV, 2
1 8 Lives of the Saints. [April a .
So Zosimus went forth with the rest, and set his face
Eastward, and saw but the brown desert before him lying
like a dead sea, and the hot air quivering over the burning
sand as over a kiln. Only at long intervals stood clumps
of date palms, with their hard leaves black and motionless
against a brassy sky.
Zosimus walked on every day over the desert, turning
sometimes to the right, and sometimes to the le/t ; now
resting in the shade of a barren hiil, then kneeling in the
rank grass beside a little pool. And at night watching the
white moon that glared over the scene and cast fantastic shad-
ows from the rocks, and listening to the howl of the jackall,
and anon seeing the red eyes of the hyasna watch him from
some hole among the rocks, and then starting and shivering
as it burst into its hideous laugh and trotted past him, its black
shadow running beside it on the white moonlit sand. After
wandering thus for twenty days, at noon he said his usual
prayers, with his face towards the East, and his eyes lifted to
heaven, when, on his right at a short distance, he saw
through the corner of his eye, some hairy creature, upright
like a human being, but strange, moving among the stones.
Fearing an illusion of the devil, with a great effort he over-
came his fear, withdrew his eye to heaven, and finished his
prayer. Then he looked, and beheld a figure, naked, tan-
ned almost black, with white hair, and was satisfied that he
beheld a hermit. So his fear was changed into joy, and he
ran towards him. But the strange person, on beholding
him, fled, and Zosimus pursued, crying to him to stay.
But the other fled on till he carne to a dry water course
into which he leaped, and scrambled across to the other
side. Thereat Zosimus came up, panting, and said, " Who-
ever thou art, servant of God, stay thy foot, and fly not
from me, a miserable sinner. I am an old and feeble man,
and I desire thy prayers and benediction/'
*
Aprils.] .SIS'. Mary & Zosimus. 19
Then answered the other, " I pray thee, for the love of
God, approach not nearer ; for I am a woman, and I have
nothing wherewith to cover my nakedness ; cast me across
thy mantle, and then I will speak with thee."
Then Zosimus threw his cloak to her, and turned his face
another way, whilst she clothed herself therewith. And
after that, he cast himself down on one side of the water-
course, and besought her to give him her blessing ; but she,
kneeling on the other side, prayed him to give her his bene-
diction. And so there was, for a while, a contest of humility
between them. But she said, " It is for thee to call the
name of God upon me, for thou art a priest, and hast long
offered the Sacrifice upon the altar of God.
But Zosimus all the more amazed at her knowing this,
said, " my spiritual mother, dead to the world, thou art
raised nigh to God by thy holy charity, I conjure thee, by
the love of the Saviour, to give me thy benediction."
Then the woman said, " May the Lord who taketh care
of our bodies and souls, so lovingly, be praised for ages of
ages 1" and Zosimus responded, " Amen." So after that
they had prayed, they sat down, and she said, "I am a
grievous sinner, but I have had the blessing of receiving
holy Baptism," and then she signed her brow, her eyes, her
lips and her heart with the holy cross.
At his earnest solicitations, she told him her story. It
was a sad one, too shocking to be fully told here. She was
an Egyptian by birth. At the age of twelve she ran away
from home to the pleasure-loving wicked city of Alexandria,
where she spent seventeen years of her life in wantonness,
" working all uncleanness with greediness." One day she
joined a party on the way to Jerusalem by sea, to keep the
solemn festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 1 but
with no religious purpose in her heart, only a wicked desire
1 Instituted first by Constantine, in 325.
2O Lives of the Saints. [A P m a .
to introduce disorder and vice among the pilgrims, and in
her evil purpose she was only too successful. Now when
she reached Jerusalem, she went with the crowd on the
feast day to the Church, but a mysterious power held her
back, that she could not force her way in. Filled with
shame and fear, she raised her eyes to a figure (eikon) of
the holy Virgin Mother, and then suddenly, like a dark
sea rising and sweeping over her, there rushed upon her soul
the consciousness of her vile, hateful life. The girl cast
herself on the broad flat stones, and watered them with her
tears, swaying herself in the agony of her remorse to and
fro, as one in physical pain. Below, writhing like a crushed
worm, with her tears flooding the pavement, shaken with
sobs with torn garland the polluted one; above, the
figure of the undefined, calm, radiant, crowned. When the
first paroxysm was past, she raised eyes and hands to the
Virgin Mother, and vowed to renounce for ever the old
foul life, and stand through the rest of her days beneath
the dear Cross of J esus, like Magdalen, if only she might
now enter in and adore the sacred wood " on which the
Prince of Glory died."
And when she had so resolved, she crept to the door, and
the angelic barrier was withdrawn, and the penitent en-
tered in. After that she had seen the Cross, she come forth
once more, and going before the image, renewed her vows
of amendment. Then a voice came to her as from a
mighty distance, " Pass over Jordan, and thou wilt find
rest" She hasted to put this command into execution, and
having drawn near the church of S. John the Baptist by
Jordan, where Christ had been baptized, she bathed hands
and face in the sacred water, and then went to the church
and was communicated with the Body and Blood of her
Lord and Redeemer, Who came on earth to seek and to
save those that were lost
ft *
i 2.] SS. Mary & Zosimus. 21
That night she slept on the ground, and on the morrow
she was ferried over the river, taking with her a few loaves,
and praying the B. Virgin to be her guide.
Now when she had told her story thus far, the abbot
Zosimus asked her how long she had been in the desert^
and she answered that she believed she had spent forty-
seven years in that wilderness, seeing no man, and living
on herbs and wild dates. For seventeen years she suffered
from sore temptation, the memory of the past haunting,
alluring her back, poisoning her present peace, and making
her tremble for the future. The old wanton songs she had
sung sounded and sounded again in her ears, and the
scenes she had gone through painted themselves in their
liveliest colours before her imagination. Her clothes wore
out, and she suffered from alternate cold and heat, and
often from hunger; but, through all, the gentle Heavenly
Mother who had called her sustained her, drawing her
nearer to God. And now Zosimus could restrain himself
no more, for his heart burnt with love and gratitude to
God, for the miracles of mercy He had wrought, and he
lifted up his voice, and wept, and cried, "Blessed be the
Lord who only doeth great marvels. Blessed be He whose
wondrous works are so many. Blessed be He for having
made me to see and hear how His mercy is towards them
that fear Him. O, my God ! I know in very deed that
Thou forsakest not those that seek Thee."
And when it was time that they should part, the one
from the other, the penitent made Zosimus promise not to
divulge what she had told him till after her death, and she
desired him to return next Lent, and bring with him on
Maundy Thursday the most precious Body and Blood of
our Lord, and to wait for her on the bank of Jordan
nearest to the desert in which she dwelt Having thus
spoken, she once more entreated his prayers, and left him.
22 Lives of the Saints. [April*.
Zosimus thereupon fell on his knees, and kissed the
ground whereon she had stood. He was thoroughly
humbled now ; his self-esteem had been swept clean away.
Next year, on the first Sunday in Lent, when the brethren
dispersed, he was detained in the monastery by sickness,
but by the end of Lent he recovered, and taking with him
the sacred Body and Blood of Christ in a small chalice,
on the appointed day, and a few figs, dates and lentils in
a little basket, he made his way to Jordan. Night drew
on, and the holy woman had not come. Zosimus grew
uneasy, fearing that she had mistaken the day, and not
finding him, had gone away; and troubled also at their
being no boat near by which the river might be crossed.
But now the moon rose, and he saw the woman on the
other bank ; and she came boldly into the stream, and God
sustained her, that she came to the other side in safety.
And when she reached him, he said the Creed and the
Lord's Prayer, and he gave her the kiss of peace, and then
he communicated her. *And when she had received the
sacred mysteries, she murmured with eyes and hands lifted
to the night sky, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant
depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have
seen Thy salvation.'' After that she said to Zosimus,
" Permit me, my father, to ask thee one favour more. Next
Lent return to the spot where thou didst find me at first,
and there shalt thou see me as it pleases God." Then the
abbot offered her what he had in his basket, but she
would only receive a few lentils.
Next Lent, Zosimus again traversed that vast solitude,
till he reached the spot where he had seen her two years
before. And all the way he felt a regret that he had not
hitherto asked her name. But when he came to the banks
of the dry torrent, he found lying there, wrapped in the
shreds of his old mantle, the poor penitent, quite dead.
*
April a .] .SVy. Mary & Zosimus. 23
She had heard once more the call "Pass over Jordan
and thou shalt find rest !" but this time it was the Jordan
of death, and the rest was that which remaineth for the
people of God.
Then Zosimus, stooping down, saw traced on the sands
these words, " Abbot Zosirnus, bury here the body of the
sinner Mary."
But he had no spade. Then, if the legend is to be
believed, a lion came out of the desert, and with his feet
dug a hole by the torrent side, and there, reverently, the
old man Zosimus laid the penitent to await the resurrection
of the just
A great number of churches claim to possess relics of S.
Mary the Egyptian. Pope Hormisdas is said to have given
relics of this saint to S. Eleutherius of Tournai; but as the
life of Eleutherius was not written before 880, this state-
ment is questionable. In Rome, itself, relics are preserved
in S. Peter's, in the churches of S. Paul, S. Peter ad
Vincula, S. George on the Ccelian Hill, S. Csecilia on the
other side of the Tiber, S. Sabina, &c. However, in 1059
Luke, abbot of Carbonne in Calabria, carried away the
entire body from Jerusalem and placed the body in the
Abbey church, but gave the head to the convent of S.
Mary of Egypt at Naples. This body was afterwards trans-
lated to the cathedral of Urbino. A finger of the saint was
given to the same convent at Naples in 1335 by the Queen
of Aragon, but whence she obtained it is not known, and
the nuns claim also to possess other bones. However, the
larger portion of the body is claimed to be at Cremona,
in the Church of S. Peter, the jaw in that of S. Erasmus, and
other portions in the parish Church of S. Matthias. Other
portions are said to be in the Church of S. Charles at
Antwerp, brought from Portugal in 1610.
In art S. Mary of Egypt appears as a woman in the
24 Lives of the Saints,
desert veiled in her long hair, though the life says it did
not descend to her shoulders; or carrying three loaves,
which was all the food she took with her when flying from
the world.
S. ABUNDIUS, B. OF COMO.
(A.D. 468.)
[Patron of Como, Milan Breviary, Maurolycus, Molaims, Canisius, and
the Roman Martyrology. Authority : A life edited by Mombritius, men-
tion in the letters of S. Leo, and Theodoret.J
THIS Saint succeeded S. Amantius on the episcopal
throne of Como in 445. S. Leo, who knew his merit, sent
him as legate to the Council of Constantinople in 450.
Shortly after his return to Italy he sat in the council of
Milan, 451. Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, wrote him a
letter which is still extant.
S. MUSA, V.
(6TH CENT.)
[Canisius in his German. Martyrology, Ferrarius in his Catalogue of
Italian Saints, Peter de Natalibus, &c. Authority : S. Gregory the Great
in his Dialogues, lib. iv. c. 17.]
S. MUSA was a little girl in Rome, who in a dream one
night saw a great company of girls in white, and the Blessed
Virgin Mary, who stayed her when she wished to run
among them, telling her that if she desired to be of that
happy company, she must be a good and serious little girl.
When the child woke, she was changed in heart from what
she had been, and was filled with a love of God, and
a desire to be of the number of the white-robed. And
after twenty-five days, the child was attacked with fever,
OJ
After
' April a-
S. Francis of Paula. 2
and five days after, lying in her bed, she looked up sud-
denly and said, "Mistress mine^ I am coming; I am
coming !" and so fell asleep.
S. FRANCIS OF PAULA, C.
(A.D. 1508.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority : The Acts of his Canonization, which
took place in 1519, and his life written by a disciple. Philip de Comines
also speaks of him during his lifetime.]
THIS saint was born about the year 1416, at Paula, a
small town in Calabria. His parents were very poor and
industrious. Francis, whilst yet a child, showed evident
token of being chosen by God for a special work. In the
thirteenth year of his age his father placed him in the
convent of Franciscan friars at S. Marco, where he learned
to read. From that time he denied himself the use of
linen and meat, though he had not professed the rule of
the Order. Having spent one year there, he performed,
with his parents, a pilgrimage to Assisi, the Portiuncula,
and Rome. When he returned to Paula, with then-
consent, he retired to a solitude about half a mile from
the town; and thence .shortly after to the face of a rock,
a cliff on the sea coast, where he made himself a cave.
He was scarce fifteen years old when, in 1432, he shut
himself up in this hermitage. He had no other bed than
the rock itself, nor other food than the herbs which he
gathered in the neighbouring wood, or what was sometimes
brought him by his friends. Before he was quite twenty
years old, two other devout persons joined him. The
neighbours built them three cells and a chapel, in which
they sang the praises of God, and a priest from the parish
church came, and said mass for them. This is considered
*
26 Lives of the Saints. [A P m 2 .
the foundation of his religious order. Seventeen years
after, the number of recluses was so much increased that,
with the approbation of the archbishop of Cosenza, a large
church and monastery were built for them in the same
place. This was about the year 1454. So great was the
devotion of the people, that the whole country joined in
the work, even noblemen shared in carrying burdens.
His bed was now no longer indeed the rock, but it was
a board, with a log for his pillow, till, in his old age, he
was persuaded to make use of a mat. He took but one
meal in the day, in the evening, and that usually consisted
of only bread and water. He obliged his followers to
observe a perpetual Lent, and always to abstain not only
from flesh, but also from food made of milk, cheese, butter,
and eggs. In order more effectually to enforce obedience
to this injunction, he prescribed a fourth vow, by which
every religious of his Order bound himself to observe it.
His intention in enjoining this perpetual abstinence was to
repair, in some sort, the neglect or lax observance of Lent
among Christians. And he hoped that the severe discipline
of his Order would stimulate Christians living in the world
to deny themselves more seriously in the forty days of
Lent, instead of seeking means of evading or tempering
the disciplinary rules of the Church. Humility, however,
was his darling virtue. The greater he was before God,
and the more he was distinguished in the sight of heaven,
.the less he appeared in his own eyes. He felt a craving
to live unknown and hidden from men, which made him
shun their society. But a city set on a hill cannot be hid,
and God lifteth the humble and setteth him on high.
When it pleased God to discover him to the world, the
saint conversed with great and noble persons without losing
his retiring and humble spirit. Other Orders have their
principal end and distinguishing characters j some being re-
*
April a.j S. Francis of Paula. 27
markable for their poverty, others for austerity, others for
prayer, holy zeal, &c. That of S. Francis of Paula may
be distinguished by its special love for humility, which he
most earnestly recommended to his followers as the ground
work of all Christian virtues, and he gave them a name
that might express it, namely, that of Minims, to signify
that they were the least in the house of God; and the
superior of every house of his Order he called the Corrector,
to put him in continual remembrance that he was only the
servant of all the rest, according to the doctrine of Christ,
who said, " He that is greatest among you, let him be as
the younger ; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve."
The archbishop of Cosenza approved the rule and Order
in 1471. Pope Sixtus IV. confirmed it by a bull, dated
the 23rd of May, in 1474, and established Francis as superior-
general. About the year 1476, the saint founded another
convent at Paterno, on the gulf of Tarentum ; and a third
at Spezza, in the diocese of Cosenza. In the year 1479,
being invited into Sicily, he was received there as an angel
from heaven, wrought miracles, and built several convents
in that island, where he continued a whole year. On his
return into Calabria, in 1480, he built another convent at
Corigliano, in the diocese of Rossano. Ferdinand, king of
Naples, provoked at some wholesome advice the saint had
given him and his two sons, Alphonso, duke of Calabria,
and John, cardinal of Aragon, persecuted him ; but the
third son, Frederick, prince of Tarentum, was his friend.
The king, alleging that he had built religious houses with-
out the royal assent, ordered a messenger to apprehend
him at Paterno, and bring him prisoner to Naples. But
the officer was so moved by his humility, and the readiness
with which he disposed himself to follow him, that, struck
with awe, he returned to Naples, and dissuaded the king
from attempting any thing against the servant of God.
* 8
28 Lives of the Saints. [April 3 .
The Sovereign Pontiff, Paul .IL> charged one of his
chamberlains to visit the wonderful man of God, and
examine whether he were actuated by the Divine Spirit, or
were influenced by self-righteousness. The chamberlain
arrived at the convent without announcing himself, and on
entering, would have kissed the hands of S. Francis, but
this, the holy man would not allow ; and falling on his knees,
said he was bound to kiss his hands, which God had con-
secrated for the thirty years during which he had said
mass. The chamberlain was much struck by his answer
made to him by an entire stranger, telling him how long he
had been a priest; but concealing himself and his com-
mission, asked to converse with him in private. The saint
conducted him into his cell. The chamberlain then began to
censure his institution as too austere, spoke much on the
illusions and dangers to which miraculous gifts are liable, and
exhorted him to walk in ordinary paths, trodden by other
eminent servants of God. Francis replied to his objections
with great modesty, but seeing that he was not yet satisfied,
he went to the fire, and taking out some burning coals, held
them a considerable time in his hand, saying calmly : " All
creatures obey those who serve God with a perfect heart."
And lo 1 his hands were unhurt. The chamberlain returned
to the pope full of veneration for the holy man, and told
him that the sanctity of Francis was greater than his repu-
tation. A youth, nephew to the saint, having died, his
mother, the saint's own sister, applied to him for comfort.
After the requiem had been said for the repose of the
young man's soul, S. Francis ordered the corpse to be
carried from the church into his cell, where he ceased not
to pray till he had restored him to life, and presented him
to his mother in perfect health. The young man entered
his Order, and was the celebrated Nicolas Alesso, who
afterward followed his uncle into France.
*
April 2 .] S. Francis of Paula. 29
At this time Louis XI. was king of France. His life
had been spent in intrigues, and was stained by crime,
and now that wretched life was drawing to a close. Every-
one knows what was the character of this crafty monarch.
It has been sketched by a master's hand in "Quentin
Durward." And now he must die. The thought turned
his blood cold, and in fear he used every means in his
power to ward off the dread visitor. He consulted phy-
sicians, quacks, and astrologers, and gave his private
physician ten thousand crowns a month, hoping to bribe
him to prolong his life. He shut himself up in his castle
of Plessis-les-Tours, despairing, frightened, and intensely
irritable. Jesters and dancers performed their antics before
him, to divert his mind from the one absorbing topic, but
the shadow hung too darkly upon his soul to be lightened
by a joke and dispelled by a caper. He ordered prayers,
processions, and pilgrimages for his health, and even to
prevent the blowing of the north wind, which was injurious
to his constitution, and in blind superstition, rather than in
faith, he collected relics from every quarter, and stored
them in his chamber at Plessis, as though he hoped to
drive off death by a display of these. Hearing of the virtue
and miracles of S. Francis of Paula, he hoped to obtain
life through his intercession, and he sent an ambassador
into Calabria, begging that S. Francis would, come to see
him, and restore his health, making the greatest promises
to serve both him and his Order. Hearing that the man of
God would not be prevailed on by these promises to comply
with his request, he entreated Ferdinand king of Naples to
send him. Francis answered that he could not tempt God
and undertake a voyage of a thousand miles to work a
miracle, which was asked out of low and merely human
motives. Louis then desired the pope to interpose in
favour of his request Sixtus IV. commanded Francis im-
r
30 Lives of the Saints. CA P ni 3 .
mediately to repair to the king, and the saint obediently
set out on his long journey. Embarking at Ostia, he landed
in France, and cured many sick of the plague in Provence,
as he passed. Louis, in great joy, gave a purse of ten
thousand crowns to the messenger who brought the news
of the saint's arrival in his dominions, and sent the dauphin,
with the principal lords of the court, to meet him at Am-
boise, and conduct him to his palace. The saint arrived
at Plessis, on the 24th of April, in 1482. The king went
out to meet him, attended by his court, and falling on his
knees, conjured him to obtain of God the prolongation of
his life. " Sire," said S. Francis, " no wise man ought to
entertain such a desire. The lives of kings have their
appointed limits as well as those of their meanest subjects.
God's decree is unchangeable, therefore resign thyself to
His holy will."
The king was not satisfied, his mean, crafty mind made
him suppose that the saint would not yield to his solicita-
tions because he had not been sufficiently bribed. He
sent him a statue of the B. Virgin in pure gold, valued at
7,000 ducats. Francis refused the statue. "I do not
reverence the gold," said he, "but her whom it is moulded
to represent. I have my own paper representation of her,
and therewith I am content." A few days after, the king
privately offered him a large sum of money, promising that
no one should know if he would but accept it The grave
hermit flashed into sudden wrath. "Sire," said he, "use
thy money better, in healing the many wrongs thou hast
done during thy life."
If Louis XL was brought to anything approaching true
contrition, it was due to the plain-spoken hermit, who
attended him till his death, and prepared him for his
passage into that other and awful world he feared so greatly.
It was in the arms of Francis that Louis died, uttering with
-
April 2.] ,S. Francis of Paula. 31
his last breath, "Notre-Dame d'Embrun, aidez moil" on
August 30th, 1483.
King Charles VIII. honoured the saint as much as did
his father, Louis XI., and consulted him on the affairs of
his conscience, and even on those of the state ; visited him
every day as long as he stayed at Plessis, and induced him
to stand godfather to his son, the dauphin, to whom he gave
the name of our saint He built for him a beautiful con-
vent in the park of Plessis, in a place called Montils ; and
another at Amboise, upon the very spot where he met
him when he was dauphin ; and going to Rome in 1495, he
built there, on the Pincian hill, a stately monastery for this
Order, under the name of the Blessed Trinity, into which
none but Frenchmen were to be admitted. In his reign,
the saint founded the convent of Nigeon, near Paris. Two
doctors, who had violently opposed the institute before the
bishop of Paris, were so moved by the sight of the saint at
Plessis, that they entered his Order in 1506. Pope Julius
II. again approved the rule, in which the saint had made
some alterations. King Charles VIII. dying in 1498, Louis
XII. succeeded him. He at first gave the saint leave to
return to Italy ; but quickly recalled it. S. Francis spent
the last three months of his life within his cell, to prepare
himself for a happy death, denying himself all communi-
cation with mankind, that nothing might divert his thoughts
from death and eternity. He fell sick of a fever on Palm-
Sunday, 1506. On Maundy Thursday he assembled all his
religious in the sacristy, and exhorted them to the love of
God, charity with one another and with all men, and to a
punctual observance of all the duties of their rule. After
having made his confession, he communicated barefoot, and
with a cord about his neck, which is the custom of his
Order. He died on the 2nd of April, in 1508, at the age
of ninety-one. He was canonized by Leo X. in 1519.
* *
_ . fft
^
32 Lives of the Saints. [A P nia.
Has body remained uncorrupted in the Church of Plessis-
les-Tours, till the year 1562, when the Huguenots broke
open the shrine and found it entire, fifty-five years after his
death. They dragged it about the streets, and burned it in
a fire which they had made with the wood of a great cruci-
fix. Some of his bones were recovered by the Catholics,
and are kept in several churches of his Order at Plessis,
Nigeon, Paris, Aix, Naples, Paula, and Madrid.
In art S. Francis of Paula is often represented with an
ass beside a forge. The story is as follows. At the request
of the saint a blacksmith shod his ass, and then demanded
payment But the man of God had no money with him.
Then the smith began to storm and swear. But Francis
bade the ass restore the man the shoes, and the beast shook
them off its feet
He appears in the habit of his Order with Caritas written
on his breast surrounded by rays of light, and standing on
his cloak, on which, says a popular legend, he was floated
from Sicily to Calabria, when refused a passage by the boat-
men, because he could not pay the fare.
S. Pancras. 33
April 3.
S. PANCRAS, BM. of Taormina, in Sicily, ist cent.
SS. EVAGRIUS, BENIGNUS, CHYRISTUS, AND OTHERS, MM. at Tomes,
in Scythia.
SS. AGAPE, CHIONIA, AND IRKNE, W., MM., at TJiessalonica, circ.
A.D. 290.
S. ULPIAN, M. at Tyre, A.D. 304.
S. URBICIUS, B. ofClermont, in France, A.D. 312.
S. BURGUNDOFARA, V* Abss. Faremoutier, circ. A.D. 653.
S. NICETAS, Ab. C. in Bithynia, A.D. 824.
S. JOSEPH, THE HYMNOGRAPHER, C. at Constantinople, A.D. 883.
S. RICHARD, B. of Chichester, A.D. 1253.
S. BENEDICT THE BLACKAMORE, C. t O.M., at Palermo, A.D. 1589.
S. PANCRAS, B. OF TAORMINA, M.
(1ST CENT.)
[Roman Martyrology and those of S. Jerome, Usuardus, Ado, Notker
and others. Greek Mensea and Coptic Calendar July 9. Authorities .
Theophanes the potter, B. of Taormina (circ. 1140) who refers to a life by
Evagrius, a disciple of S. Pancras. S. Theodore of the Studium (d. 826)
had already quoted this life, but the quotation is quite sufficient to establish
the life as a late forgery. In the early portion of the pth century, there
flourished a monk in the monastery of Paguria, named Gregory, who
preached a panegyric upon S. Pancras at Taormina, which is extant, as
is also an Ode on their saint by S. Joseph the Hymnographer (d. 883), and
these, the sermon and the ode, contain the legend from the apocryphal
life by Evagrius.]
all probability the main outline of the story of
S. Pancras is true, but we must certainly receive
the details with caution. He is said to have
been sent by S. Peter into Sicily to preach the
Gospel, and this he did with considerable success. He
found the Sicilians greatly devoted to the worship of two
idols Phalca and Lyssio, the latter a figure round which a
huge serpent was coiled, as though clothing it He preci-
pitated both these idols into the sea; then, in order to
VOL. iv. 3
34 Lives of the Sa^nts. [Apru 3 .
confirm the people in the right faith, and give them a clear
notion of the person of Christ, at the command of S. Peter,
he sculptured a representation of the Saviour, on a tower,
" That the people may see what form the Son of God as-
sumed, that seeing they may more readily believe, and
looking on the form, may recall those things which have
been announced by us to them.
S. Pancras sealed his testimony by his blood, for he was
stoned to death.
SS. AGAPE, CHIONIA, AND IRENE, W., MM.,
(ABOUT A.D. 290.)
[Greek Menaea, and Menologium of the Emperor Basil, in the Roman
Martyrology, Irene on April 5th, as also in those of Bede, Rabanus, Ado,
Notker, Usuardus &c. Authority : An account in the acts of S. Anastasia
(Dec. asth) and S. Chrysogonus (Nov. 24th). These are in Latin, and older
than the 7th century, for, in 692, S. Aldelm wrote an eulogium on these
saints. The name of S. Anastasia was inscribed in the canon of the Sacra-
mentary of S. Gregory (d. 604), and the veneration of SS. Anastasia and
Chrysogonus was certainly very widespread before that. The Latin Acts
are not however at all trustworthy, having undergone considerable amplifica-
tion, but they have suffered less alteration than the extant Greek Acts.]
AGAPE, Chionia and Irene, were three sisters, virgins,
young, beautiful and God-fearing, who lived near Aquileia
in the reign of Diocletian. Now after that S. Chrysogonus
had suffered at Ad-aquas-graduatas, an old priest named
Zoilus took up his body and hid it in a wooden chest in the
cellar of his house. And after some days, the martyr ap-
peared to Zoilus and said, "That most wicked Diocletian
will cause Agape, Chionia and Irene to be seized in nine
days, and they shall receive their crown ; but do thou bid
Anastasia comfort them. And as for thee, for that thou art
aged, and hast pleased the Lord, thou shalt rest with the
Saints." Then Zoilus told his dream to Anastasia, and
after that, he peacefully fell asleep in Christ
April 3-1 ,5*6". Agape, Chionia, & Irene. 35
Anastasia visited the three sisters, and spent a night with
them, and on the morrow returned to Aquileia. But Dio-
cletian had the virgins apprehended, and brought before
him, and he bade them renounce their madness and adore
idols, then would he find them suitable husbands from among
the officers of his household.
" Most sacred emperor," said Agape ; " Thine is the care
of the nation, thine the care of the republic, thine the care
of the army, and dost thou thus speak against the living
God without whose aid thou canst avail nothing?"
The emperor turned to Chionia and said, "Do thou
answer ; thy sister is crazed." " My sister is of sound mind,
answered Chionia, "And rightly does she reject unright-
eous offers;" Then he spoke to the youngest, Irene, and
bade her be wiser than her sister. " What 1" she exclaimed ;
"Is that sound sense which adores an idol made by an
artificer, and made as the artificer desires, sometimes sitting,
sometimes standing ; if the maker wills, he makes a smirk
on his god's face, if he wills, he puts tears into his eyes ; if
it suits his taste, the god is capering on one toe, or if other-
wise, he is sprawling on the ground. I prefer to such sound
sense the madness of my sister."
Diocletian, very angry, ordered the three sisters into
prison, where they were visited and comforted by S. Anas-
tasia. But when the emperor went into Macedonia, he
gave orders that the Christian prisoners should be brought
in his train ; and Agape, Chionia and Irene were committed
to the custody of a certain governor, Dulcitius, who became
inflamed with love for the three comely sisters.
Here, in the legend, follows a scene which may have pro-
vided the comic element in a mediaeval miracle play. On
the journey, the three damsels, for lack of a better jail, were
locked into a kitchen. During the night, after a banquet,
Dulcitius visited their prison, to see that all was secure. It
*
36 Lives of the Saints. CA P rii 3 .
was very dark ; but he heard the voices of the sisters sing-
ing psalms, and Dulcitius,. being very drunk, groped his way
about the kitchen after them ; and when he thought he had
caught one, he kissed, and he had laid hold of a sooty
copper, or a black saucepan by mistake. 1 He ran here and
there, but was eluded by the objects of his pursuit, and he
always caught and bestowed his endearments upon the
dirtiest and sootiest of the kitchen utensils. At last he
emerged from the temporary prison, quite unconscious of
the begrimed condition of his clothes and the black patches
on his face. Early in the morning, Dulcitius solemnly took
his place in his judgment hall, and was greeted by a burst
of merriment from his clients and servants. Furious at
this unseemly conduct, the governor, who was a man punc-
tilious in all that touched his dignity, walked straight to
where the emperor lodged, to complain of the outrage that
had been committed upon his office. Why, as he traversed
the street, the faces of the passers-by suddenly assumed an
expression of amusement or astonishment, he was at a loss
to conceive. He ruffled up, adopted a prouder air and a
more magisterial stride, and went straight between a row of
aghast ushers, right up into the imperial presence. The
d'enouement may well be left to the imagination of the reader.
Suffice it to say that Dulcitius swept home like a whirlwind,
and when he had washed his face, he ordered the three
sisters who had exercised their sorcery upon him to be
brought into his presence and stripped naked. But the
loss of natural sleep in the night, his exploits in the kitchen,
and the sudden shock in the imperial palace, had been too
much for the governor. When the maidens were brought
in and placed before him, before the second part of his
mandate could be executed, Dulcitius was noisily sleeping,
1 Ollas ccepit amplecti et sartagines deosculari ; in quibus ludificatus dm, donee
niger fotus et cacabatus effectus.
*-
Apni 3 .] ,5V5\ Agape, Chionia, & Irene. 3 7
(dormiebat stertens). In vain was he shaken by his at
tendants, they could not wake him and at last ! a scene
to bring down the house in the Miracle Play exit Dul-
citius carried by the servants in the magisterial chair, nodding
and snoring. 1
Diocletian, having heard the story, ordered the maidens
to be tried and executed by Count Sisinnius. Agape and
Chionia were by his orders cast into the fire, where they
died, but Irene, the youngest, fairest, frailest, he reserved
for a more fiendish trial. He threatened her with exposure
in a den of infamy. "Yet will I not forsake my God/' she
answered. " Those pollutions to which the mind does not
consent, do not condemn. Saints of God have had the
blood of your sacrifices forced into their mouths and down
their throats, but they were not therewith defiled/'
" What ! they were not corrupted by eating .the blood of
sacrifice !" exclaimed Sisinnius.
Irene answered, "Nay, not corrupted thereby, but
crowned; for pleasure bringeth penalty, but necessity
wreatheth a crown/' 3 Then he ordered her away, but God
delivered her soul from evil, for one of the attendants, per-
haps out of rough charity, shot her. In the Acts, as we
have them, another admixture of the grotesque spoils the
authenticity and beauty of the old and true story. Sisin-
nius finds that instead of being carried whither he ordered,
she was perched on the summit of a mountain. There-
upon he mounts his horse, strikes his spurs in, and gallops
to the spot, but though he gallops without drawing rein
from early morn till late eve, the horse does nothing more
than career round and round the mountain. Then one of
his men drew a bow, and with an arrow transfixed Irene.
1 Qui sublatus inde in sella dormiens, tune expergefactus est, cum domum suaxn
fuisset ingressus.
* Non solum non sunt inquinati, sed etiara coronati sunt. Voluptas enim habet
pcenam, et necessitas parat coronam.
M
38 Lives of the Saints. [A P ni 3 .
S. ULPIAN, M.
(A.D. 304.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority: Eusebius in his History of the
Martyrs of Palestine, c. 5, contemporary and perfectly trustworthy.]
ULPIAN OR VULPIAN was a youth of Tyre, who was cast
into the sea in a leathern sack together with a dog and
an asp, which were sown up in it with him.
S. URBICIUS, B. OF CLERMONT.
(ABOUT A.D. 312.)
[Gallican Martyrologies. Authority : S. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Fran-
corum, lib. i. c. 39,]
S. URBICIUS was a Senator, and was elected to be bishop
of Clermont, whereupon he separated from his wife and
bade her live in a convent But after a while the woman
yearned to be back with her husband, and she came to
him saying, "Why dost thou shut the door against me?
Why dost thou not receive me, thine own wife? Listen
to the words of S. Paul, ' Defraud ye not one the other,
except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer, and then come together
again.' 1 I am thine own wife, and now I return to thee."
Then his heart softened at the sound of her dear voice,
and the memories of happy years spent together; his
resolution melted away, and he opened the door and re-
ceived her once more.
But, after a while, his conscience reproached him, and
he bitterly repented having returned to that lower state
from which he had arisen when he had taken an ecclesi-
astical office, so he fled away from his wife, and hid himself
in a monastery.
'iCor.vii.s.
Aprii 3 .] vS 1 . Nicetas. 39
Now a daughter was born to him after his reunion with
his wife, who entered into the religious estate, and all
three lie buried together, says S. Gregory, in the crypt of
Cantobenum.
S. NICETAS, AB. C.
(A.D. 824.)
[Commemorated by Greeks and Latins on this day. Authority: His
life by Theosterictus, his disciple and constant companion.]
THIS saint was one of the many sufferers in the Icono-
clastic persecution carried on by Leo the Armenian, after
the tranquillity enjoyed during the reigns of the Empress
Irene, Nicephorus, and Michael I. If the reader will turn
to the life of S. Nicolas of the Studium (Feb. 4th) and S.
Tarasius (Feb. 25th), he will obtain a clear view of the
earlier history of the Iconoclastic controversy. We shall
now resume that history where we left it off. It has been
briefly sketched in the life of S. Nicephorus (March isth),
but it shall be given here with greater fulness. 1
Nicephorus, raised by Irene into power, basely to repay
her by casting her into banishment, was vanquished and
slain by the Bulgarians. His son and heir Stauracius
escaped from the field with a mortal wound, lingered six
months, and then died. On the near prospect of his
decease, Michael Rhangabe, Master of the Palace, who
had married Procopia, the daughter of Nicephorus, was
named by every person in the palace and the city, and he
accepted the purple before Stauracius had sunk into his
grave. Had Michael, in an age of peace, ascended an
hereditary throne, he might have reigned and died the
father of his people ; but his mild virtues were adapted to
the shade of private life, and he had not the force of
* See vols. ii., pp. 92 and 416, and vol. iii, p. 249.
*-
4_o Lives of the Saints.
character to constrain the ambition of his equals, nor the
skill in arms to resist the victorious Bulgarians. While his
want of ability exposed him to the scorn of the soldiers,
the masculine spirit of Procopia, his wife, awakened their
indignation. Even the Greeks of the ninth century resented
the insolence of a woman, who, in the front of the standards,
presumed to direct their discipline and animate their valour.
After an unsuccessful campaign, the emperor left, in their
winter quarters of Thrace, a disaffected army under the
command of his enemies. The soldiers elected Leo the
Armenian, one of the principal officers, to be their emperor.
" I will open the gates of Constantinople to you with this
sword," said one of his friends, Michael the Phrygian, "or
I will plunge it into your breast" Leo assented to the
demands of the army and marched to Constantinople.
But the clergy, the senate, and the people of the imperial
city, adhered to the cause of Michael; and the troops and
treasures of Asia might have protracted the mischiefs of
civil war had not the humanity, perhaps the weakness, of
Michael prevented the shedding of blood. The keys of
the city, and the purple of the empire, were handed to the
Armenian, and Michael retired to a monastery, where he
enjoyed the comforts and solitude of religion for above
thirty-two years. Procopia was shut into a convent of
women, and their sons, Theophylact and Nicetas, were
made eunuchs and monks. The ex-emperor and his sons
changed their names when they entered religion. The
father took the name of Athanasius, and died in 845.
Theophylact called himself Eustradias, and died five years
after his father. Nicetas took the name of Ignatius, and
became equally celebrated for his virtues and his sufferings.
Educated in a camp, and ignorant both of laws and letters,
Leo the Armenian introduced into his civil government the
rigour and even cruelty of military discipline. He was
*-
Aprii 3 .] S. Nicetas. 41
small of stature, but well built, and with a voice like
thunder. We are told by Simeon Metaphrastes that his
bristly hair caused the patriarch Nicephorus some trouble
in crowning him. The religious question soon engaged his
attention, and he supposed, soldier-like, that he could sway
consciences as he could move soldiers, that the souls of
men were as disciplinable as their bodies. At first he
seemed to be a good Catholic, perhaps he cared not much
for the questions then agitating the Church, till they were
brought prominently before him. Then he formed his
opinion and was surprised and angry that it was not bowed
to and made law in the kingdom of Christ without a ques-
tion. In the second year of his reign he declared himself
an enemy to sacred images. "No wonder that Christians
fall before the heathen, if they adore images," said he to
one of his courtiers. "See you, every emperor who has
supported them has lost his throne, and those who over-
threw them have held their seats. I will imitate them, that
I may live long, and leave the empire to my children, even
to the fourth generation." He chose as his agents John
Spectas, Eutyhianus, and especially a priest named John
Hylilas, or more commonly Lecanomantes, from being
accustomed to divine with a basin of water. Antony,
Metropolitan of Sylseum in Pamphylia, was let into the
plot j he was summoned for the purpose to Constantinople.
He was the son of a priest tailor, and he brought with him
two chaplains, one of whom, however, proved of no as-
sistance in the cause, for, having been guilty of scandal,
he was sentenced to lose his nose, and the operation
having been unskilfully performed, the poor wretch bled to
death. " Show me a passage, in the Gospel, or in S. Paul,
hi which images are expressly commanded to be adored,"
said Leo to Nicephorus the patriarch. He could not do so.
" Then let them be destroyed," said Leo. The patriarch
42 Lives of the Saints. [A P ni 3 .
replied that the use of images reposed on traditional
authority, and was of advantage in stimulating devotion.
But Leo was already prepossessed against them.
Nicephorus sent for Antony of Sylseum, and charged him
before many witnesses with favouring the enterprise of the
empress. Antony denied it, and gave him a declaration
under his cross and seal, in which he protested that he
honoured images, and anathematised those who destroyed
them.
The emperor at once demanded of Antony an explana-
tion of his conduct. " I am throwing dust into their eyes
to blind them, till you have accomplished your purpose/*
said the wily prelate.
A great gathering of bishops was summoned, and as the
fathers disembarked, the emperor sent for them to the
palace, before they visited the patriarch, that he might
discipline them to his views. Those who were known to
be adverse to images were given their liberty, the others
were closely watched and deprived of the use of books,
and of opportunities of mutual counsel. The patriarch
Nicephorus redoubled his prayers, and exhorted the
Catholics to remain firm. He gathered about him as many
monks and bishops as he was able, and spent the night
in prayer in the great church. Then standing up in the
ambo, he pronounced anathema against Antony of Sylaeum,
as a prevaricator. The emperor, at cock-crow, sent to the
church and ordered the patriarch and his party to the
palace, complaining that they were stirring up sedition.
Nicephorus followed by S. Nicetas, S. Theodore of the
Studium, and other faithful allies, walked in procession to
the palace, and was coldly received by the emperor.
Leo opened the conference by protesting that he held
the same views with regard to images as did the patriarch,
but that he saw how great scandal arose amongst Christians
A P fU 3 .] S. Nicetas.
through excessive adoration of images, and therefore
desired to see the abuse cut away at the root. Drawirj
reliquary from his breast, he kissed the images engra
on its sides, in proof of the truth of his assertion,
said Emilian of Cyzicus, " If this be a question of eccl
astical order, let it be considered in the Church, and
in the palace/'
u I am acting as a mediator," said the emperor.
" If thou art mediator, sire/' said Michael the Me
politan of Synnada, "wherefore dost thou constrain
side and favour the other? One is deprived of books
liberty, the other is given the use of all the libraries,
absolute freedom and favour."
" You have no proofs, therefore you do not plead/'
Leo.
Peter of Nicsea answered, " We cannot argue, when
thy weight is thrown into the adverse scale." Euthyra
bishop of Sardes said, " Hearken, sire, Jesus Christ ca
into the world eight hundred years ago, and since tl
representations of Him have been made and venerat<
who is so bold as to abolish such an ancient tradition?"
S. Theodore of the Studmm spoke after the bisho
and said, "Sire, trouble not the order of the Church. 1
apostle said that God had placed first apostles, proph<
pastors, and doctors, but never a word did he speak
emperors. Thou hast charge of the state and the arn
look to that, and leave the Church to her proper pastors.
The emperor, extremely incensed at such plain langua
cut short all further argument by driving the opposit
from his presence, and the bishops and abbots were ser
with strict orders not to leave their houses and meet
they heard from the emperor.
The emperor either ordered, or permitted, an image
Christ above the brazen gate of the palace to be pel
44 Lives of the Saints. [Apru 3 .
with stones and mud. This was the same image that had
been pulled down in the reign of Leo the Isaurian. 1
Leo the Armenian pretended to be offended, and said
to the people, " Let us take down this image, lest it be
further profaned by the soldiers." And for the second time
the figure was cast down.
On the feast of Christmas, Leo entered the sanctuary of
the great church at Constantinople, according to custom,
and venerated the representation of the Nativity upon the
altar apparel, as usual. But on the feast of the Epiphany,
Jan. 6th, 815, he went to the Church, but did not rever-
ence the images.
From that day he took a still more decided step against
those who reverenced images. He gave the charge of the
church and the sacred vessels into the hands of the
patrician Thomas. Then the emperor sent Theophanes,
the brother of the empress, to the patriarch, to demand
that he should hold another conference, at the palace, with
the Iconoclasts. The patriarch Nicephorus was sick, and
he refused j but he besought the emperor to restore to him
his charge over the flock of his diocese, and to liberate the
captive bishops. If the emperor would do this, he would
meet him, not otherwise.
The Iconoclasts persuaded Leo to refuse this rational
request, and to depose and banish the patriarch. This
deposition was formulated in Lent, and excommunication
was pronounced against all such as should recognise
Nicephorus as their patriarch. When the sentence reached
the old man, he wrote to the emperor, " Hitherto I have
fought for the truth, as well as I was able, and I have
suffered sore through affronts, imprisonment, confiscation
of my goods, and the dispersion of my servants. Also
those who are bishops have come to insult me, followed
i Vol. ii., February, p. 9$.
Nice fas. 45
by a rabble armed with swords and staves, whilst I lay
sick. And now, last of all, I learn that my enemies have
deposed me, and rob me also of my life. To avoid some
disaster, the guilt of which would fall on your majesty, I
yield to necessity and quit my see, ready to receive what
God has in store for me for the future."
On the morrow, the emperor banished Nicephorus, and
appointed one Theodotus in his room. Theodotus was
consecrated on Easter Day, April ist, 815, and held the
see for six years. After Easter a council was held in the
church of S. Sophia by the Iconoclastic prelates, and such
as had yielded to the storm, under the presidency of the
new patriarch, Theodotus Cassiteras. The great abbots of
Constantinople were summoned, but refused to attend, and
by attending acknowledge the intruded patriarch.
Some Catholic bishops were brought into the council,
who, it was supposed, could be intimidated into acqui-
escence. Their clothes were torn off their backs, then
they were led into the church like prisoners, and made
to stand before the president, and choose exile and rever-
ence for images, or a seat in the council and iconoclasm.
They chose the former, and the furious prelates and their
followers threw them down, trampled on them, spat on
them, beat them with their fists in the face, and cast them
out of their synagogue, bruised, ragged, and bleeding, to
be carried back to prison. After the bishops, came certain
abbots, but they proved equally stubborn, and were sent
also to prison.
Among those who were then called to suffer was Nicetas,
abbot of the Medicion, a monastery on the foot of Mount
Olympus near Prusa, in Bithynia. He was born at
Cassarea, in Bithynia, and had embraced the religious life
hi early youth; he had received priestly ordination from
the hands of S. Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, and
*
46 Lives of the Saints. [April 3 .
was taken by S. Nicephorus, hegumen, 1 or abbot of the
monastery, with the consent of the other monks, to be
his coadjutor. On the death of S. Nicephorus, in 800,
Nicetas was left alone in charge, but the burden was too
great for him, and he associated a certain Athanasius with
him. When the persecution broke forth against the bishops
and abbots who refused to consent to the will of the new
patriarch and the bishops seated- in S, Sophia, Nicetas was
cast into a confined and filthy dungeon, where he was
repeatedly visited by creatures of Theodotus Cassiteras
and the emperor, urging him to conform to the established
iconoclasm. As he steadfastly refused, he was ordered
into Anatolia, to be kept a close prisoner in the castle of
Messalaeon; and in the midst of a cold winter he was
hurried there through snow and mud in seven days.
Nicetas had not been five days in this new place of con-
finement before orders reached his guards to bring him
back to Constantinople. There he was placed under John
Leconomantes, the conjuring priest, who threw him and
other confessors for the same cause into narrow and noisome
dungeons, with nothing to lie on, nor blankets to cover
them, and gave them through a small hole bitter mouldy
bread and some stagnant water. Finding all his efforts to
enforce compliance were in vain, the emperor altered his
plan and adopted milder measures. He promised to re-
instate the abbots and monks, and suffer them to hold
their own opinions and venerate their sacred images, if
they would only refrain from stigmatizing the other party
as heretics, and communicate with the new patriarch, so
as to heal the schism and prevent scandal. A party of
the monks agreed to this; amongst others Nicetas, who
was recalled and comirunicated with Theodotus, in a
chapel surrounded with holy pictures, and the patriarch to
l Not to be confounded with S. Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople.
*
Iff :
Aprii 3 .3 v?. Nicetas. 47
satisfy their prejudices solemnly pronounced anathema
against all such as did not reverence the image of Jesus
Christ. Afterwards, however, the abbots found that they
had been deceived, and they repented, retracted their
promise, openly testified their reverence for images, and
thus exposed themselves to new persecutions.
This exasperated the emperor to a new outbreak. Exile,
close confinement in chains, hunger and thirst, and severe
scourging, were the punishments employed to compel them
to yield. For the most part the persecutions was directed
against the monks, but not exclusively, women and maidens,
bishops and senators, were among the sufferers. Michael
bishop of Synnada was imprisoned in the isle of Eudociala,
Theophylact B. of Nicomedia languished thirty years an
exile, part of that time in the castle of Strobyle in Caria.
S. Euthymius, Metropolitan of Sardis, was sent to Asos,
as was also S. Emilian, bishop of Cyzicus. George of
Mitylene died an exile in the Chersonese ; the abbots are
too numerous to mention. Nicetas had fled in a boat to
Proconnesus, but there his conscience reproached him, and
he resolved to make reparation for the concession he had
been led into. He therefore returned to Constantinople,
and the emperor gave him at first in charge to an officer
named Zacharias, a pious man, who treated him with great
kindness, but afterwards sent him to the island of Glyceria,
to the custody of the eunuch Anthymius, exarch of the
monasteries in that part Anthymius cast him into a very
miserable prison, of which he himself kept the key, and
there he spent six years, till the death of Leo the Armenian,
who, notwithstanding his iconoclasm, met with a bloody end.
Then the old abbot Nicetas returned to Constantinople,
and having chosen a quiet island in which he could rest, faded
away from history, and peacefully died, April the 3rd, 824.*
3 For further information on the importance of the controversy, the fundamental
principles involved in the struggle, see the life of S. Theodore of the Studium
Nov. xith and S. Germain of Constantinople, May i2th.
___
48 Lives of the Saints. tA P rn 3 .
S. JOSEPH, THE HYMNOGRA.PHER, C.
(A.D. 883.)
[Venerated by the Greeks on this day. Authority : A life by his disciple
Theophanes, afterwards enlarged by a certain John the Deacon, of unknown
date. The following sketch is from the pen of Dr. Neale, in his ' ' Hymns
of the Eastern Church."]
A SICILIAN by birth, Joseph of the Studium left his
native country on its occupation by the Mahometans in
830, and went to Thessalonica, where he embraced the
monastic life. Thence he removed to Constantinople, but,
in the second iconoclastic persecution, he seems to have
felt no vocation for confessorship, and went to Rome.
Taken by pirates, he was for some years a slave in Crete,
where he converted many to the faith; and, having ob-
tained his liberty, and returned to the imperial city, he
stood high in the favour, first of S. Ignatius, and then of
Photius, whom he accompanied into exile. On the death
of that great man he was recalled, and gave himself up to
hymnology. A legend, connected with his death, is some-
times represented on the walls of the churches in the
Levant A citizen of Constantinople betook himself to the
church of S, Theodore in the hopes of obtaining some
benefit from the intercessions of that martyr. He waited
three days in vain; then, just as he was about to leave
the church in despair, S. Theodore appeared. "I," said
the vision, "and the other saints, whom the poet Joseph
has celebrated in his canons, have been attending his soul
to Paradise, hence my absence from my church."
Of the innumerable compositions of this most laborious
writer it would be impossible to find one which, to Western
taste, gives the least sanction to the position which he
holds in the East The insufferable tediousness consequent
on the necessity of filling eight odes into the praises of a
saint, of whom nothing, beyond the fact of his existence,
*-
A. P rii 3 .] S. Richard, 49
is known, and doing this sixty or seventy different times,
the verbiage, the bombast, the trappings with which scrip"
tural simplicity is elevated to the taste of a corrupt court,
are each and all scarcely to be paralleled. He is by far
the most prolific of hymn-writers.
S. RICHARD, B. OF CHICHESTER.
(A.D. 1253.)
[Anglican and Roman Martyrologies. His translation on June i6th.
He was canonized in 1262, and his life was written before his canonization,
by a contemporary ; and another life by Radulph Bockinghatne, his con-
fessor, shortly after, in 1270, which he dedicated to Isabelle, countess of
Arundel. Also Matthew Paris, his contemporary, mentions him in his
history.]
, S. RICHARD was the second son of Richard Backedine
and Alice, his wife, of Wyke, in the diocese of Worcester.
His father dying, the elder brother was left a minor, and
the land, which belonged to him, was in the hands of
trustees, who seem to have remunerated themselves so
liberally out of the estate for the trouble it gave them, that
the young man, when he came into his property, found him-
self, to use his biographer's expressions, " bare and poor of
everything except the bit of land itself."
Richard, seeing the trouble in which his brother found him-
self, at once left the school in which he had been placed, and
put himself at his brother's disposal ; became, in fact, his only
labourer and servant, ploughing, reaping, and threshing
for him, and doing all that lay in his power to remedy the
distress. His elder brother, perhaps moved with gratitude,
probably disgusted at the prospect of getting the farm into
good order after such long neglect, threw it up, and by a
deed made it over to Richard. Some little while after,
when prospects looked more smiling, the relatives devised
VOL. iv. 4
*
50 Lives of the Saints, [Aprils.
a plan of marrying Richard to a beautiful girl of large
means and good birth. His elder brother no sooner .heard of
this, than he repented having given up the property,. "Do
not fret your heart about the matter/' said Richard; "I
will treat you in a gentlemanlike (curialis) manner, as you
once treated me. I restore to you the title deed and the
land ; you may take the damsel also if she consents, for I pro-
mise you, my brother, I have not even kissed her lips yet" 1
After that, S. Richard went to Oxford, and thence to
continue his studies in Paris, and there he lodged in the
same room with two other poor scholars, and fed on bread
and porridge (potagium) and so poor were they that the
three had only one respectable coat between them, and
could only go alternately to the lectures in the coat, whilst
the others sat at home without. Thence he returned to
Oxford, that he might take his degree in his own land. A
story is told by Ralph Bockinghame concerning his life there.
One day he was invited to dinner, on the occasion of the
inauguration of a new doctor. When he had taken his
seat, a message was brought him, that a youth was outside
on a horse, who wanted to speak to him, immediately.
Richard rose from table and crossed the hall to the door,
and found no one ; but, at that instant, a large stone fell
from the wall exactly where he had been seated, and
would have undoubtedly killed him but for the providential
accident which drew him from the spot at that moment
From Oxford S. Richard went to the then celebrated
university of Bologna, where he remained seven years, and
became so proficient in canon law that the professor would
have married him to his only daughter, and made him
his heir, had not S. Richard refused the offer, having
another sort of life in view. At the expiration of the seven
years, S. Richard returned to Oxford, and was made chan-
cellor of the university.
1 Nunquam etiam os deosculatus sum, ist life.
S. Richard. 51
S. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert Gros-
teste, bishop of Lincoln, strove to secure him to be their
chancellor ; he preferred to take office under S. Edmund, and
administered it with the utmost justice.
When S. Edmund fell into disgrace with the king, his
chancellor clung to him. England was then in a most
troubled condition ; Henry III. had made unconstitutional
encroachments on the liberties of the Church. When a see
or an abbacy fell vacant, he refused to permit the chapters
to elect, but seized on the revenues for himself, and endea-
voured to force on the sees or abbeys creatures of his own,
foreigners and relatives of his wife, Eleanor of Provence. At
the same time Pope Gregory was in conflict with the Em
peror Frederick II. ; and sorely needing money, empowered
his legate Otto, cardinal deacon of S. Nicolas, to obtain as
much as he could from the people of England. The legate
accordingly, with more zeal than discretion, sold dispensa-
tions to such as had vowed to take part in the crusade to
the Holy Land. He also endeavoured to oblige the bishops
to pay to the chair of S. Peter a fifth part of all their
revenues. He and the king also, in violation of the rights
of private patrons, appointed foreigners to various well-
endowed rectories in England. The king attempted to
force his wife's uncle William, bishop elect of Valencia, into
the see of Winchester, and quashed the election by the
chapter; but was unable, in the face of their strenuous
opposition, to carry his point. 1
At this time S. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury,
wrote to the Pope to complain of the royal interference
with the liberty of election by the chapters to the episcopal
sees and conventual abbacies. " The king did not permit
cathedral and conventual churches which were deprived of
their pastors to take breath, nor to provide themselves
1 Matthew Paris, Chron., under 1240.
52 Lives of the Saints. [April 3 .
freely and canonically with suitable pastors \ and the king,
following the movements of his own will, rather than his
reason, impeded their election by means of his cunning
agents, whom he kept in pay for that purpose." This is
the account of the contemporary Matthew Paris.
Pope Gregory, accordingly, made out letters empowering
the archbishop to appoint, hi the event of a church being
deprived of its pastor, and remaining vacant for six months.
But the king having written to complain that this was a
step opposed to his kingly dignity, the Pope revoked the let-
ters, and Henry at once appointed to the see of Winchester
Boniface of Savoy, uncle to the queen, in defiance ot
the liberties of the chapter, and of a bull of the pope
addressed to them (in 1239), authorising them to reject any
foreigner imposed upon them.
The archbishop, in the hopes of carrying his point, had
yielded a fifth of his income to the papal see, and had
persuaded the other prelates to do the same.
In July, 1240, came warrants from Pope Gregory to S.
Edmund and to the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury,
"ordering them to provide for three hundred Italians in
the first benefices that should fall vacant, giving them also
to understand that they were suspended from giving away any
benefices till that number was suitably provided for." 1 S.
Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, did not dare, in the
excited state of feeling in England, to carry out this order.
"Seeing that the English Church was being daily trampled
on more and more, despoiled of its possessions, and de-
prived of its liberties, he became weary of living," says
Matthew Paris, and he retired with his faithful chancellor,
S. Richard and a small retinue, to France, and took up his
abode at Pontigny.
After the death of S* Edmund, S. Richard retired into a
i Matthew Paris.
April 3 .j S. Richard. 53
Dominican convent at Orleans, where he devoted himself
to the study of divinity, and was ordained priest. He then
returned to England, and was appointed by Boniface of
Savoy, now archbishop elect of Canterbury, to be his
chancellor. Shortly after, on the death of Ralph Neville,
bishop of Chichester, the chapter elected one of their
canons, a courtier of the king, to the vacant see, but Boniface
of Savoy, the archbishop elect, and Robert Grosteste,
bishop of Lincoln, quashed the election, on the ground
that the bishop elect was deficient in learning, and they
nominated S. Richard to the vacant see. But when the
king heard that his favourite was rejected, and that one
who belonged to the opposing party was appointed, he
was filled with rage, and confiscated the property of the
see of Chichester. Richard went to London to remonstrate
with Henry III., but in vain ; he was received and dis-
missed with insults. He then proceeded to Rome to be
consecrated by the Holy Father himself. At his time
Innocent IV. sat in the chair of S. Peter. A remarkable
incident occurred at the ordination of S. Richard. Another
was to be ordained at the same time as himself, and the
throat of the vial of holy oil was clogged so as to allow
scarce a drop to fall on the head of this person ; but when
S. Richard presented himself to be anointed, the stoppage
being overcome, the oil rushed forth over his head, and
flowed down his cheeks and shoulders so that the ministers
were obliged to wipe it up with napkins \ and one of the
cardinals exclaimed, "Surely this man has received the
plenitude of grace 1 "
On his return to England with letters from the apostolic
see, he found that the revenues of the see of Chichester
had been confiscated by the agents of the king. In vain
did he remonstrate and show the letters of the pope ; he
was received with abuse by King Henry and his creatures.
54 Lives of the Saints. [Aprn 3 .
He was even obliged to lodge in the house of a hospitable
man in Chichester, his palace being occupied by a favourite
of the king. He now laboured to execute his spiritual
ministry with energy and devotion, traversing the diocese
on foot, or on a borrowed horse. And when he saw the
dean and canons sad in spirit at the failure of another
attempt on his part to obtain redress for wrongs and
restitution of goods, with a bright face he comforted them,
saying, "Remember what is said of the apostles. They
went with joy from the presence of the council, for that
they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name
of Jesus."
But the Holy Father did not leave S. Richard unsup-
ported. A peremptory mandate to the king came from
Rome, ordering the restoration of the goods of the see by
a certain day. Henry was afraid to disobey, and re-
luctantly yielded up the manors and lands of the see, but
in a ruinous and impoverished condition. 1
S. Richard at once appointed his brother to the steward-
ship of his possessions, and went about his diocese re-
lieving the poor and suffering as bountifully as his means
allowed. And this regardless of himself, for his brother
having remonstrated at his lavish expenditure in alms, S.
Richard answered, " Brother dear, it will never do for us
to eat out of gold and silver plates and bowls, whilst Christ
is suffering in the person of His poor. Our father ate and
drank heartily out of common crockery, and so can I; 2
then sell the plate." His biographer gives another instance
of his kindliness. There was a certain John Fitz-Alan, who
had violated the rights of the Church of Chichester by
some act of high-handed spoliation, for which the bishop
excommunicated him. Fitz-Alan came to see him, and S.
1 Rex maneria sua, ruinosa et nuda, ei restitult. ist life.
*Novi ego valde bene, sicut et pater meus, de terrea parospide et cratere escam
sumere et potum degustare j vendantur igitur vasa argentea et aurea. ist life.
Aprii 3 .] . Richard. 55
Richard received him in a friendly manner, and made him
sit down at his table and dine with him, saying, " Here, in
my dining-hall, you are absolved from your excommuni-
cation, and so you may remain when you go away, if you
will make the necessary satisfaction/' And he was very
earnest in laying down that no quarrels about lands or money
or privileges should stand in the way of good fellowship
and charity; but when it was a matter of moral wrong
and scandal, S. Richard was stern and inflexible. An
incumbent in his diocese had corrupted a nun, and he at
once inhibited and degraded him. The priest appears to
have been of birth and influence, for he induced the king,
the archbishop of Canterbury, and several earls and barons
to intercede for his restoration. But S. Richard, smiting
his breast, said, " Never, never whilst his life remains in
my body, shall a ribald (ribaldus) like this who not only
has done this wrong, but still retains a professed nun as
his mistress, exercise any cure of souls in my diocese of
Chichester. Let my lord archbishop, to whom he has
appealed, do with him according as he will deem most
fitting to make answer at the Day of the Last Judgment."
It is said of him, and this opens out to us the tenderness
of his good heart, though the circumstance is trivial, that
he was wont to rise very early to prime, preventing the
sun, and often he passed through the dormitory and saw
his clergy fast asleep. Then he would not wake them, but
quietly stole away, leaving them to sleep on and take their
rest, and said the office by himself.
At length, by commission from the pope, he undertook
to preach throughout the kingdom, to- encourage the for-
mation of a new expedition for the recovery of the Holy
Sepulchre. He began with his own Church at Chichester,
and so proceeded along the coast, till he arrived at Dover,
where he dedicated a church and burial ground designed
*
56 Lives of the Saints. [A P ni 3 .
as a cemetery for the poor, under the invocation of his
own beloved patron, S. Edmund of Canterbury. He
lodged in the Hostel-Dieu, which adjoined this cemetery
and church, and on the morrow he rose, and went into the
chapel, where he sang matins. But when he was standing,
hearing mass, he fell down in a fit, and was carried into
his bed in the ward of the hospital. On coming to himself,
he told his chaplain that he would never rise again from
that bed, and he bade him secretly prepare everything for
his funeral. His old friend, Master Simon de Terring, who
had entertained him during the time that the property of
the see was confiscated, drew near the bed; S. Richard
turned his peaceful face towards him, and said, "I was
glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of
the Lord/'
When asked what food he would take, he answered in
the words of S. Philip, " Lord, show us the Father, and it
sufficeth us !" Then a crucifix was solemnly brought in,
and the dying saint extended his arms to the loved form, and
kissed the wounds, and said, " Lord Jesu Christ, I thank
Thee for all the blessings Thou hast given me, and for
all the pains and insults Thou didst endure for me, so that
to Thee apply most truly these words, Behold and see, if
there was any sorrow like unto my sorrow ! Thou knowest,
Lord, how willing 1 should be to bear insult and pain and
death for Thee ; therefore have mercy on me, for to Thee
do I commend my spirit." And after a pause he added,
"Mary Mother of Grace, Mother of Mercy, do thou pro-
tect me from the enemy, and receive me in the hour of
death/'
And so he died, in the fifty-sixth year of his life, and the
ninth of his episcopate. He was carried to Chichester,
and there interred.
In a i4th century catalogue of the Bishops of Chiches-
, , , ij,
Aprii 3 .J iS. Richard. 57
ter 1 are the following entries. "S. Richard began (to
govern the see) in the year 1200, and sat .... years.
This holy man acquired the bishopric of Chichester, the'
mill at Fetelworth and the adjacent port. He also acquired
the presentation to the vicarages of Stoghton, Conoghton,
Clympyng, Cokefield, Westfield and Iklesham," and after
other notices of little interest, adds, " He died the 3rd day
of April, 1253, and was inscribed in the catalogue of the
saints by the Pope in 1262. He was translated in the
Cathedral Church 'on the i6th day of June, 1276." This
translation took place in the presence of King Edward I.,
and was made by Archbishop Robert, and Stephen, Bishop
of Chichester \ and the body of the saint was placed in a
silver shrine. 3
The tomb of S. Richard 8 is now in the South Transept
against the parclose at the back of the choir stalls. It was
somewhat injured by the fall of the central spire a few years
ago, and has not yet been restored The shrine of silver is
supposed to have stood behind the high altar before the
entrance to the Lady Chapel.
In 1538, two commissioners were sent by K. Henry VIII.
to see that both the shrine and the place where it was kept
were destroyed 4 and this was carried into effect. But in
1543, the Chapter of the Cathedral had the tomb in the
Lady Chapel that had been broken by the Commissioners
restored and repaired.
In the report of these Commissioners we read that they
removed in a ship's coffer fifty-five images of silver-gilt from
the shrine, and in a large coffin wherein S. Richard's bones
1 Written before 13(73.
2 King Edward offered at the shrine a wax image of himself and a piece of cloth
of gold.
8 The date of this tomb is about 1400, one hundred years at least later than the
Translation, and may have replaced a simpler memorial.
* Wilkins Cone, iii. 840.
58 Lives of the Saints. [Aprils.
had lain, they carried off fifty-seven more silver-gilt images.
The body of the saint was probably replaced in the tomb
by the commissioners who carried off the silver shrine, and
when the tomb was re-opened for restoration in 1847, there
were signs of a hasty reinterment, fragments of hazel wands
cut by pilgrims on their way to the shrine and hung on it as
tokens, part of a pastoral staff, and traces of a wooden
coffin. 1 The tomb is very interesting, it is richly panelled
and adorned with weepers, Canon Simon Ferring, Ralph
de Bocking the saint's confessor, Canon William de Reading,
his chaplain, Prior John of Selborne, and Sir Richard de
Bachedine, his brother and treasurer. This tomb was prob-
ably removed to its present position after the visit of the
Commissioners. S. Richard is said to have ordered the
parishioners in his diocese to visit the cathedral at Easter
and Pentecost, and Bishop Storey mentions that the custom
was maintained in honour of the saint by parishioners
round Chichester, who were wont to assemble in the choir,
and then enter the chancel and nave making the circuit of
the church with crosses and banners. Bishop Rede, in his
visitation in 1678, asks " Is the pious and grateful com-
memoration of the founders Wilfrid and Richard made ki
Divine Service on set days ? " 2 For centuries the cathedral
was called S. Richard's Church, and to this day the lane
leading from the Deanery to the Cloister is called S.
Richard's Wyne. A bone of S. Richard was anciently
preserved at Wigmore, 8 and a joint at Selborne, in the time
of Henry VI, together with his comb and calefactory. In
the time of Edward I. a harper used to play at the shrine.
1 The skull had a fine high forehead, the hands were crossed upon the breast.
* Walcott's Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals.
Test. Vet. g. iii.
April 3.3 ,S. Benedict the Black. 59
S. BENEDICT THE BLACK, C, O.M.
(A.D. 1589.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority : - The Acts of his Canonization, &c.]
S. BENEDICT the Blackamore was born in Sicily, about
the year 1526, of slave parents of negro race. His father's
name was Christopher Manasseri, and his mother's was
Diana Lercan. They were both Christians. They lived
together in continence, as they could not endure the pros-
pect of children being born to them who would continue in
the same miserable slavery as themselves. However, their
master having promised to give freedom to their firstborn,
heaven bestowed on them a son, whom they called Bene-
dict. The little negro boy was given charge of sheep
among the mountain pastures, and there, far from men, he
lived to God, absorbed in meditation and prayer, passing
long hours on his knees with his hand clasped, and his eyes
raised to the blue sky. As he grew up, he was able, by
economising his wages, to buy a pair of oxen, with which
he worked for three years independently. At the age of
twenty-one, feeling a divine call, he sold his oxen, and en-
tered the order of the hermits of S. Francis, and retired to
the hermitage of S. Domenica, clothed in a dress of palm-
leaves. The fame of the piety of the hermits of S. Do-
menica having spread abroad, many people came to visit
them, and the hermits, fearful of the danger to their humil-
ity, departed to the valley of Mozzara, and eight years after
to the barren and frozen solitude of Mancusa. But in con-
sequence of a miracle wrought by S. Benedict this retreat
was again invaded, and the hermits fled to Monte Pellegrino,
where they erected rude cells among the rocks. On the
death of the superior, S. Benedict was elected by the other
hermits to be their head, and he executed his office till
1562, when Pope Pius IV. incorporated the order with that
60 Lives of the Saints. [Aprils.
from which it had originated. The saint then entered into
several convents of the children of S. Francis, and laboured
to carry out reformations in the order. In one of these
convents he acted in the capacity of cook, and the story is
told of him, that one day when the friars were unable to
procu-re any food on account of the heavy fall of snow,
Benedict filled several large vessels with water, and prayed
all night to God. And lo ! when morning came, the water
was alive with fishes.
In 1578, he was appointed superior of the convent of
Santa Maria. As soon as his turn of tenure was expired,
he was made instructor of novices, and then again, cook. In
February, 1589, S. Benedict fell ill, and lingered on till April
3rd, when he died. In his last sickness he believed that he
was visited by S. Ursula, surrounded by a blaze of light
He was reckoned among the saints by Pope Pius VII.
*
April 4 . ,S^. Agathopus & Theoduhis. 61
April 4.
SS. AOATHOPUS, DM., AND THEODULUS, Lect. M. at fhessaknica
beginning of^th cent.
S. GEORGE, H. on Mt.Maloeus, inLycaonia, 6th cent.
S. TIQERNACH, B. of Clones, in Ireland, A.D. $5*
S. ISIDORE, B. of Seville* A.n. 036.
S. PLATO, Ab. C. at Constantinople, circ. A.D. 813.
S. GWERIR, H. at Ham Stoke, in Cornwall, gthcent
S. PBIER, B.ofl oitiers, A.D. 1112.
SS. AGATHOPUS, D.M. AND THEODULUS,
LECT. M.
(BEGINNING OF 4TH CENT.)
[Greek, Latin, Russian Kalendars. Authority : The Greet Acts, a late
recension greatly amplified with speeches and prayers, but trustworthy as to
facts. Also the notice in the Menology of the Emperor Basil, from the
Acts, probably from an earlier and conciser form.]
IGATHOPUS a deacon, and Theodulus, a lector,
witnessed to Christ a good confession in the
I city of Thessalonica. They were taken before
the governor Faustinus, who endeavoured, but
in vain, to force them to adore idols. They were cast into
prison, where they had the following vision. They thought
that they were on board a vessel in the midst of the sea,
labouring against a furious tempest. Then the ship struck,
and they were plunged in the water, but escaped safely to
a rock and ascended a hill. This vision was probably a
pre figuration of their martyrdom, for they were, by the
governor's orders, thrown into the sea with stones round
their necks, and so they passed through the waters, and
were received upon Mount Zion into the presence of theii
Lord and King.
62 Lives of the Saints.
S. TIGHERNACH, B. OF CLONES,
(A.D. 550.)
[TamlachtMartyrology; but in some of the foreign Martyrologies, on
April 5th, Aberdeen Breviary on the 5th. Authority : A life written some
time after 1151, when Armagh was constituted an archbishopric, as the
writer speaks of the Venerable Duach in the 6th century as archbishcp of
Armagh, and it is not likely that he would have been guilty of such an
anachronism had the elevation of the see into an archbishopric been a re-
cent event. The author probably wrote shortly after the English invasion
in 12105 his history, he tells us, is based on traditionary accounts of the
Saint, and it is therefore of very slender value historically, for traditions
must have undergone strange alterations and amplifications in from six to
seven centuries.]
S. TIGHERNACH is said to have been the nephew of King
Echach. He was born near Clogher. His mother, Diar-
fraych, loved a noble in her father's court, named Corbrey,
and the fruit of their union was Tighernach (t\e., chief tain ),
so called, because he was the nephew of kings and nobles.
He was baptized by Bishop Conlaeth of Kildare (d. 519).
Whilst still a little child he was taken by pirates and sold
as a slave to the king of Brittany, who ordered the child to
sleep in the same bed with his own young sons. And here
follows a grotesque legend. The young princes were found
dead in the morning, the superior greatness and sanctity of
the youthful Tighernach had been too oppressive for their
more earthly nature, and they had succumbed to it. Then
the king and queen sent to a holy man, S. Morwen, and
asked his advice. The saint recommended that the holy
babe should be laid once more between the dead princes.
And now his sanctity had quite another effect, it revived
them; but in remembrance of the event, one was -always
blind, and the other was bald to the end of his days.
S. Morwen was so struck with the virtue of the youth,
that he carried him off to his monastery of Rosneath, ajid
one day, says the legend, as he watched him sleeping, he
*-
Apm 40 Tighernach. 63
saw that the boy exhaled first a milky-white breath, then a
wine-red breath, and thirdly one of an oily colour, these
were, of course, so many presages of his future greatness.
The fable goes on to say that after a while he went to
Rome, and thence returned to Ireland in company with S
Kieran (March 5th) of their adventures and miracles on
the way, I do not care to tell, saving only this, that S.
Tighernach found on reaching Ireland that he had left his
censer behind him in the port of Britain from which he had
sailed. He did what other Keltic saints had done before
him, and many did after him, when they in like manner lost
their bells, he called it, and the censer came to him over
the waters of S. George's Channel.
In his own land he converted many idolators, and
founded the Abbey of Cluain-eois or Clones in the county
of Monaghan, where also he fixed his episcopal seat, when
he was ordained bishop. In the latter part of his life, hav-
ing lost his sight, he retired into a lonesome cell, and spent
his hours of darkness in constant meditation and prayer;
and died there on April 5th, A.D 550.
The specimens already given of the childish fables which
have attached themselves to his history will be sufficient for
the reader. His life in Ireland after his return from Rome
is prolific in equally worthless legends as that one day
when his chariot driver did not urge on the horses at suffi-
cient speed, an angel assumed the whip and reins, to the
great astonishment of the driver, and when he took off his
hat and stared at the angelic charioteer, contrary to the
orders of S. Tighernach, his eyeball fell out, but was im-
mediately replaced by the saintly bishop.
64 Lives of the Saints. [Apra*.
S. ISIDORE, B. OF SEVILLE,
(A.D. 636.)
[Roman and Spanish Martyrologies and that of Usuardus. Authori-
ties: S. Braulio, in Prsefat. ad litt S. Isidori, and his own writings.]
SPAIN, under the dominion of the Visigoths, was Arian,
and severe had been the repression exercised on the Church
by the Visigoth kings. But Ingundis, daughter of Sigebert,
king of Austrasia, had married the young prince of Spain,
Hermenigild, and she converted him to the true faith. It
cost him his life. Reccared, on succeeding to the throne,
abjured Arianism at the Third Council of Toledo, A.D. 589,
thanks, as we are told by S. Gregory, to the influence of S.
Leander, elder brother of S. Isidore, and his immediate
predecessor in the See of Seville. The life of S. Leander
has been already given, (Feb. 27th.)
S. Isidore was son of Severian, governor of the province
of Carthagena, in Spain, who was either the son, or son-in-
law of the Ostrogoth King Theodoric, 1 and the brothers of
S. Isidore were the illustrious Leander of Seville, and Ful-
gentius of Ecija. His sister were S. Florentusa, an abbess,
and the princess Theodosia, married to the king Leovigild,
and the mother of the martyr Hermenigild. Severian and his
wife Turturace were exiled on account of their faith, A.D.
552, or thereabouts, and S. Isidore was born in exile.
Where this occured has never been ascertained, though
variously conjectured. Many years afterwards, S. Gregory
the Great met S. Leander at Constantinople, during his own
residence there, A.D. 578-84, and the biographer of S.
Gregory says that " Leander had come thither on business
of the Visigoths as ambassador." 2 So that the family must
have been recalled to Spain before that time. S. Isidore
must have been born about the year 570 \ and the legend
i Areval, Prolegom, ad S. Isid. c. 15. Vit. S. Greg. Magn. i. 17.
April 4.1 S. Isidore. 65
is told of him, as of other saints famous for their oratorical
powers, that the nurse one day found a swarm of bees set-
tled about the child's mouth. Another graceful story is
told of his boyhood. Wearied and disgusted with the
drudgery of learning, he ran away from school, and as the
sun grew hot, sat himself down to rest beside a little
spring that gushed over a rock. As he rested in the shade,
he noticed that the continual dropping of the water had
worn away a large stone beneath the jet, and the water-
drops pattering on the stone were to him what the Bow
Bells were in after years to Whittington ; for he thought
that if the light rain of the spring could scoop out the hard
heart of the stone, then assuredly constant learning would at
last overcome his natural inaptitude to acquire knowledge
Where was this school to which he returned, and where he
became in time such an accomplished Greek scholar ? It
is impossible to suppose that it was in a re-barbarised coun-
try like Spain ; and it is highly probable that Severian, on
his banishment, had retired to Aquileia, capital of Istria,
which had long been subject to tKe Ostrogoths, his near
kinsmen. There Isidore may have been left to complete his
education. The schools there were famous, founded by
Boethius and Cassiodorus, and from them Venantius Fortu-
natus, the poet-bishop, was just departing. We may per-
haps be allowed to suppose it was so, and that the boy's
heart ached with loneliness, when he saw his parents depart,
and then feeling his desolation and the irksomeness of
learning, he shut his books and ran away. But God sent
His messengers to recall him, and the messengers were
little water-drops. Those drops gave to Spain an historian,
and to the Church a doctor.
Upon the death of his brother, S. Leander (about A.IX
601), he was elected to the see of Hispalis, or Seville, and
he laboured to accomplish what his brother had begun, the
VOL. iv. . 5
*
66 Lives of the Saints. [April 4.
complete conversion of h/s flock from Arianism. For the
discipline of the monasteries in his diocese he drew up a
collection of Rules.
Two councils were held whilst he was bishop, the second
of Seville and the fourth of Toledo.
The second council of Seville was attended by eight
bishops of the province of Betica, and assembled in the
chapter-house of the Jerusalem Church at Seville, on the
1 3th Nov., A.D. 619. The archbishop of Seville presided,
the clergy of the city were present, and two laymen, Sisis-
clus, governor of the province, and Suanilla, the chancellor,
were allowed seats. Among the acts of this council, one of
the most curious has reference to the ordinations by a blind
bishop, who laid his hands on the heads of the candidates,
whilst a priest said the words of benediction. All such
ordinations were decreed invalid.
The fourth council of Toledo was held in 633, on Dec.
9th, in the third year of the reign of King Sisnand. It
was attended by sixty-two bishops, and was presided over
by S. Isidore of Seville. Next to him sat six other metro-
politans, the bishops of Narbonne, Merida, Braga, Toledo,
and Tarragona \ there were also present seven deputies of
absent bishops. When the council had assembled in the
church of S. Leocadia, King Sisnand entered, and having
prostrated himself before the bishops, he requested them to
pray for him. It must have been a solemn spectacle, that
conclave of prelates ; and the king is said on entering to
have burst into tears. The Council drew up seventy-five
canons, the first of which is a profession of faith, in which
the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation are un-
folded. In it, it is distinctly enunciated, that the Holy
Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. The negli-
gence of the bishops in the matter of holding synods was
reprimanded, and they were required to convene one every
S. Isidore. 67
year ; but in these synods nothing concerning the faith was
to be decided, for all such matters were to be discussed
only before a general council of all Spain and Gaul.
The manner in which councils were to be held was
carefully prescribed ; and this is the earliest and only such
regulation recorded ; it is unquestionably a formulization of
ancient traditional usage. At the first hour of the day, be-
fore sunrise, the church was to be cleared, and the gates to be
closed, and the porters were to admit at first only the bishops,
who were to seat themselves in order according to their
rank. They were to sit in a circle, and then the priests were
to be admitted, who were to range themselves behind the
bishops. Then such laity as the council judged worthy
were to be admitted, as also the notaries to read and write
what was required. And the gates were to be kept closed.
And after the bishops had long kept silence, communing in
heart with God, the archdeacon was to cry aloud, " Let us
pray." Then all were to fall on the ground, and remain
long in silence : but one of the oldest of the bishops was
to pray aloud, standing, all the rest remaining pros-
trate. And when the prayer was over, all were to respond
"Amen," and then the archdeacon should cry, "Arise!"
And when all had risen and taken their seats, a deacon in
an alb was to bring the book of Canons into the middle of
the assembly, and to read such as treated of the conduct
of Councils. Then the metropolitan was to exhort all such
as had motions to make to propose them in order. And
each motion was to be considered in its entirety, and not
to be passed over to take up another of greater interest. If
anyone from without, priest, clerk, or layman, desired to ad-
dress the council, he must confer with the archdeacon, who
would announce his purpose to the council, and the council
might permit him to enter to propose what he desired.
And no bishop was to be suffered to depart from the
68 Lives of the Saints. [April 4 .
council till it was closed and he had subscribed its
canons.
In 636, S, Isidore died, after having governed his Church
for about forty years. Feeling his end approach, he sent
for two bishops, and going forth with them and followed by a
great multitude of clergy and laity, uttering cries of sorrow,
he went to the church of S. Vincent. On reaching the
church he was carried into the choir, and ail the women
were put forth till the two bishops had put upon him a
sackcloth habit, then he was laid upon ashes, and extend-
ing his hands to heaven, he prayed for pardon. After that,
he received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ from the
two bishops, and asked all present to pray for him, and dis-
tributed all his money among the poor. It was Easter Eve.
He was then carried back to his house, where he died, foui
days after, on April 4th, 636.
S. Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, thus speaks of S. Isidore
his contemporary : " I think that God must have raised
him up in these latter times to restore Spain from the decay
into which it has fallen, to set up again the ancient land-
marks and to save us from altogether becoming rude and
countrified."
S. Isidore, besides leaving numerous writings, is believed
to have composed or arranged the Mozarabic liturgy, though
we have not got that liturgy now in exactly the same form
as he is thought to have left it.
The body of S. Isidore reposes in the Church of his title
at Leon in Spain.
In art he is represented with a pen and a hive of bees.
April*] S. Plato. 69
S. PLATO, AB. C.
(ABOUT A.D. 813.)
[Greek Mensea. He died March. iQth, but was buried April 4th, on
which day his festival is observed in the Greek Church. Authority : His
funeral oration, containing a sketch of his life, preached by S. Theodore of
the Studium, his sister's son, spiritual son, and fellow confessor in the
Iconoclastic persecution.]
THIS holy man was born in the year 735, at Constanti-
nople, of Sergius and Euphemia, of noble family. He lost
both his parents, and many of his kinsmen, in a terrible
plague which ravaged the imperial city in 746, but he was
brought up by one of his uncles, who was treasurer to the
emperor ; and as Plato was a ready writer and accountant,
he made the lad assist him in his duties, and at last com-
mitted almost the whole of them into his hands. Plato was
by this means brought in contact with the court and the
emperor himself, and all respected him for his integrity
and simplicity. He soon accumulated a large fortune,
which, united to that bequeathed to him by his father,
made his prospects as splendid as the heart of man could
well desire. Many attempts were made by ambitious
parents to obtain him as a son-in-law, but the heart of
Plato was drawn above, by a love passing the love of
women; and at length, overcoming all the struggles of
ambition, covetousness and pleasure, to get dominion over
his heart, he liberated all his slaves, and taking with him
only one dear and faithful servant, he escaped from the
gilded city and hid himself in a cave on Olympus, where
he cast aside his worldly habit, and bade his servant shear
off his flowing hair.
Then he went to the monastery of the Symbols, governed
by S. Theoctistus, and offered himself at the gate, saying,
" Father, I give thee all, mind, body, will ; use thy servant
as it pleases thee." He was then aged twenty-four, and
*
7o Lives of the Saints. [April 4.
it was in the year 758 that he entered the monastery. The
abbot tried his obedience in every way. He bade him
grind the corn, water the ground, and remove the manure,
and found him in everything ready and cheerful. In the
year 770 he was elected hegumen, or abbot, on the death
of Theoctistus. During the persecution of the monks by
Constantine Copronyrnus, he was by some oversight left
unmolested ; and after the death of the emperor, business
having called him to Constantinople, he was not recognised
by his nephews, who were not even aware that he was still
alive, so completely had he been forgotten. But his visit
to the imperial city having been the occasion of his perform-
ing many excellent works of mercy, as the reconciliation of
foes, and the conversion of the impenitent, his name be-
came noised abroad, and he was offered the bishopric of
Nicomedia by the patriarch S. Tarasius. But he refused
the bishopric, and shrinking from further notoriety, retreated
into his solitude, hoping there to be again forgotten by the
inconstant and busy world.
The empress Irene having restored peace to the Church
in the East, the family of S. Plato founded a monastery
at Constantinople, which was called Saccudion, and in 782,
twelve years after he had been appointed abbot of the
Symbols, he was nominated to the Saccudion. He at
once dismissed the slaves with their wives belonging to the
monastery, deeming it unbecoming in monks to be the
masters of poor bondsmen. But he could not carry out
this reform without much opposition, and in the end it was
adopted by all the other monasteries. He assisted at the
second council of Nicsea, and signed the decrees after the
bishops. Shortly after, he was attacked by a mortal
malady; then he resigned the government of the monas-
tery to his nephew, the famous S. Theodore, and after
having been twelve years abbot of the Saccudion, he died
*
Gwerir, 71
in the sixtieth year of his age, 794. His life was very
singularly broken into five circles of twelve. He was
twelve when his parents died. He spent twelve years with
his uncle before he left the 'world. He was twelve years
in the monastery of the Symbols before his election to be
abbot, and after having filled this position for twelve years,
he became abbot of the Saccudion for another twelve.
S. GWERIR, H.
(UNCERTAIN.)
[Anglican Martyrology published in 1608, and republished 1640; also
Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints.]
OF the saint nothing is known except that he was a
hermit at Ham-stoke, near Liskeard, in Cornwall, and that
king Alfred was cured of a painful disorder when praying
in the church built over his grave by S. Neot. Asser, in
his life of Alfred, thus relates the matter : " He had this
sort of disease from his childhood ; but once, Divine Pro-
vidence so ordered it, that when he was on a visit to
Cornwall for the purpose of the chase, and had turned out
of the road to pray in a certain chapel, in which rests the
body of S. Gwerir, and now also S. Neot rests there, for
king Alfred was always from his infancy a frequent visi-
tor of holy places for the sake of prayer and almsgiving,
he prostrated himself for private devotion, and after some
time spent therein, he entreated God's mercy, that in His
boundless clemency He would exchange the torments of
the malady which then afflicted him for some other lighter
disease j but with this condition, that such disease should
not show itself outwardly in his body, lest he should be
an object of contempt, as makes men useless when it
afflicts them. When he had finished his prayers, he pro-
*
72 . Lives of the Saints
ceeded on his journey, and not long after he felt within
him that, by the hand of the Almighty, he was healed,
according to his request, of his disorder, and that it was
entirely eradicated. . . . But, sad to say ! it was re-
placed at his marriage by another which incessantly tor-
mented him, night and day, from the twentieth to the forty-
fourth year of his life."
*-
11
. African Martyrs. 73
April 5.
S. IRENE, V.M. at Thessalonica^ circ. A.D. 290 (see SS. Agape t Chionia^
and Irene ) April yrd).
SS. FIVE MAIDENS, MM. at Lesbos.
SS. AFRICAN MARTYRS, under Genseric, A.D. 559.
S. THEODORA, W. at Thessalonica, circ. A.D. 880.
S. GERALD, Ad. of Saiwe-Majeur^ in France^ A.D. 1095.
S. ALBERT, B. of Monte-Cornino^ in S. Italy ^ A.D. 1127.
S. JULIANA, V. atLitge, A.D. 1258.
S. VINCENT FERRIER, C., O.P. at Vaitnes, in Brittany, A.D. 1419.
SS. AFRICAN MARTYRS.
(A.D. 559.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority: Victor of Utica, a contemporary,
in his history of the Vandal persecution.]
jjURING the cruel persecution of the Church in
North Africa by the Arian king Genseric, an Arian
priest named Andiot led on a band of armed men
to attack the Catholics in their church, whilst they were
celebrating the feast of Easter. Some burst in armed with
swords, others threw darts, or shot arrows through the win-
dows, and some ascended the roof to tear it up and throw
stones on the worshippers. A lector was then in the ambon
chanting the Paschal Alleluia, when an arrow pierced his
throat, and the book dropped from his hands, and he bowed
and sank down in the pulpit to die, The whole congrega-
tion was then butchered by the ruffians.
*
, a
74 Lives of the Saints. [April 5 .
S. GERALD, AB. O.S.B.
(A.D. 1095.)
[Canonized by Pope Celestine III., March 29th, 1197; but singularly
enough not in the Benedictine Martyrology. Authorities : Two lives ;
one by a monk of Sauve-Majeur, who speaks of S. Gerald having lived
in those times, but does not state that he ever saw him. From mention
by a certain Peter, 7th abbot of Sauve-Majeur, who died 1135, it is
evident that it was written after that, probably about 1140. The other
life written about 1 190 by a monk of Corbie.]
S. GERALD was born at Corbie, near Amiens, in the nth
century, of pious parents, who offered him in early youth to
the abbey of Corbie, in which he made his profession about
the year 1048, under the abbot Foulques. War desolated
the country, and the religious were often in great extremities
for food. Gerald was employed to go round the country
collecting the necessaries of life. Over exertion and a
scanty diet were perhaps the chief causes of violent head-
aches, which afflicted him for many years. When attacked
with pain in his head, his face lost its colour, and his eyes
their brightness. The physicians, with the barbarous igno-
rance of the time, attempted to relieve him by making deep
incisions into his head, and bleeding him, thereby heighten-
ing instead of alleviating his sufferings.
The abbot, being obliged to visit Rome, took with him
brother Gerald, and on his return appointed him to be
sacristan. At the time, the monks were building a new
church, but the poverty of the times had obliged them to
discontinue the work. Gerald undertook to collect offer-
ings towards the completion of the church, and his under-
taking was crowned with success. At last he was freed
from his headaches after a vow made to S. Adelard, and in
gratitude for this relief, he always felt great devotion to his
benefactor.
*
APHIS.] S. Gerald. 75
With the consent of his superior, he made a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, and on his return was appointed to the
abbacy of S. Vincent de Laon. But finding that the monks
there were over-solicitous about the management of their
farm, and were fond of delicate living, he surrendered the
government into the hands of the bishop who had forced
him to assume it, and went forth with a few who, like him-
self, desired to observe the rule in all its strictness. William
VII. Count of Poitiers and Duke of Guyenne offered them
the lands of Sauve-Majeure, 1 in the great forests near the
mouth of the Garonne. They settled in this wild country,
covered with forest, in 1077, and two years after they began
to build then 1 monastery. The influence of the new com-
munity soon made itself felt in the neighbourhood. S.
Gerald was indefatigable in preaching to the peasants, a
rude untaught people in that part, and they crowded to
hear him, and listened with trickling tears to his touching
appeals to their souls and loving words on the passion of
Jesus Christ. He died in 1095, and was canonized a hun-
dred and two years after. The feast of his translation was
observed on October isth, but his festival was, last century,
fixed for the day of his death.
His body was preserved before the Revolution in a pre-
cious reliquary. This was stolen then, but the bones of the
saint were left unmolested. They were immediately buried
by a good Christian, and after a few days dug up and con-
cealed in a cupboard. They repose at present in the parish
church of La Sauve.
* La Sauve near Creon between the Garonne and the Dordogne.
fi&~
76 Lives of the Saints. [April 5 .
S. JULIANA, V. ABSS.
(A.D. 1258.)
[Belgian Martyrologies. Authority : A life by a contemporary.]
THE little hamlet of Retinne near Lie'ge, was the birth-
place of a woman to whom the Catholic Church must ever
look with gratitude for having been the means of introduc-
ing into her round of festivals one which perfects, completes,
and seals that holy circle. In one of the four houses which
at the close of the i2th century formed Retinne, lived
Henry and Fraisendis, his wife, of noble birth, happy, but
childless. The pious couple bestowed large alms to the
poor, and prayed God to give them children. Their alms
and prayers were accepted, and in 1191 Fraisendis became
the mother of a little girl, who was christened Agnes, and
in the following year she was given another, who received
at the font the name of Juliana.
But scarcely had Juliana left her cradle before she was
an orphan ; her father and mother were dead, and her rela-
tions placed her and her sister Agnes in the Augustinian
convent of Cornillon near Lie'ge. She was then aged six.
The superior, fearing that these tender plants would suffer
from being brought into contact with the disorders of the
patients nursed by the religious, sent them away to the dairy
farm, in the faubourg of Amescoeur, which was under the
charge of sister Sapientia. The walls of the old " Vacherie"
are still standing. They may be seen among the last houses
before reaching the convent of the prebendaries.
Sister Sapientia was a discreet mother. The little Juliana
having heard that S. Nicolas fasted when a child, resolved
to do likewise, and one day went without her breakfast.
But Sapientia observed it, and to punish her, sent her to
kneel for a few minutes in the snow. The child obeyed at
Apriis.3 S. Juliana. 77
once. The good mother from a window watched, and see-
ing her readiness to undergo punishment, at once released
her, and bade her run off to the church, and confess to the
priest her fault in fasting without permission. The priest
heard the confession, and then told the little girl to run
back to Sapientia, and tell her to boil her an egg, for she
was going to eat it at once.
From her infancy, the glorious drama of the Christian
year, the seasons, passing before her in solemn succession,
filled her young heart with never-fading interest. The
contemporary author of her life says, that when the first
strains of the Vexilla regis, "The royal banners forward go,"
burst on her ear on each recurring Passion Sunday, she
shook with suppressed emotion, and then tears rained from
her eyes. In 1207, S. Juliana was aged fourteen. Good
sister Sapientia had left the charge of the dairy to others,
and was now Mother Superior in the convent of Cornillon.
Juliana, who had grown up among the nuns, away from
the world of which she knew little and cared less, with a
white soul untarnished even by the knowledge of the evil
that blighted so many lives without, asked to be given the
veil at Cornillon.
Her sister Agnes was dead; after a few years in the
dairy she had passed away like a delicate spring flower,
and had gone into the presence of her Saviour wrapped in
the robe of her baptismal innocence. Juliana was there-
fore rich, all the inheritance of her parents was heirs ; she
gave it all to the convent and to the poor, in exchange for
the veil.
The Cornillon is a height on the east of Lie*ge, on which
stood recently the Chartreuse. The convent of Cornillon,
into which S. Juliana was received, is now a house of
hospital sisters. The church is still there, the nave was
rebuilt last century, but the sisters would not suffer the
78 Lives of the Saints. [April s-
choir in which S. Juliana prayed to be pulled down to
make way for another. That poor church was the cradle
of the feast of Corpus Christi. The grounds of Cornillon
extended along the slope of the hill, the length of the wall
of the Chartreuse. From the upper part of that slope a
glorious view opens on the visitor. Lige is before him
with all its spires, its steep streets, broad quay, and noble
river. The hill sides on the right are covered with vines,
and from their folds rise the smoke from iron foundries.
On the left, S. Martin, the Collegiate Church, where lived
Eve the recluse, the friend of Juliana; then the great
buildings of the abbey of S. Laurence ; then, of old, but
alas ! not now, the great cathedral of S. Lambert.
The convent of Cornillon was founded at the close of
the 1 2th century as a hospital for lepers. When S. Juliana
entered it the house was poor, but her property enriched it.
In this convent Juliana lived, studious of books, and de-
voted to the sick. Her favourite reading was S. Augustine,
her favourite occupation ministering to the lepers.
In the year 1208, when Juliana was not yet sixteen, she
had a vision whilst engrossed in prayer. She saw the
moon crossed by a dark stain. She communicated
the vision to the Superior, but its signification neither
could divine. It was not till two years after, in 1210,
that its meaning was made clear. Then, in sleep, the
young nun saw that the moon signified the Church mili-
tant, and that the defect or dark stain she had noticed
traversing its circle signified the defect of one festival which
would complete and perfect the ring of seasons. Every-
thing that Christ had done for this Church was solemnly
commemorated by a feast, the Incarnation, the Mani-
festation to the Gentiles, the Atonement, the Resurrection,
the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, but not
that gift, the most sweet and precious, in which He Him-
*
* - *
AP^S.) S. Juliana. 79
self ever abides in His Church the gift of the Eucharistic
Presence.
About I225, 1 the venerable Sapientia died, and Juliana
was elected to fill her room. She proved an admirable
Superior. The perfect she loved as a mother, the imper-
fect she guided ; she consoled the afflicted, encouraged the
feeble, instructed the novices, and encouraged the fervent.
In 1230 Juliana had reached her 38th year. It was twenty
years since she had received the explanation of her vision.
She had struggled against the mission which God had
committed to His feeble handmaiden. Now she felt she
must speak. She had a friend, a recluse who lived built
into a cell adjoining S. Martin's Church on the opposite
side of the river, a church commanding the city. They
had opened their hearts to one another, but Juliana had
not as yet revealed to her the mission imposed upon her.
She did so now. " Pray God for me," said the humble
recluse, "that He may quicken in me the same fire of love
for the Holy Sacrament that consumes thy heart. 3 '
The recluse seconded all Juliana's efforts, after she had
maturely considered the matter. Later she had fears for
the success and continuance of a festival which she, how-
ever, longed to see instituted. But S. Juliana always
replied to her fears by assuring her that the powers of hell
would never triumph, so as wholly to suppress it when once
it was established.
At the same time lived a virgin at Huy, renowned for
her innocence and virtue. Her name was Isabella. S.
Juliana received her into the community of Cornillon, and
soon found her to be one in whose confidence she could
repose, and by whose advice she could act She therefore
disclosed to her the idea that possessed her. Isabella at
1 There is great doubt as to the year : Bertholet says 1222, Fisen the historian of
Lie"ge says 1225, the Bollandists 1230.
*
8o Lives of the Saints. [April 5.
once replied, " Why have a special festival to commemorate
an institution which is recalled every day to Christians by
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?"
This reply overwhelmed Juliana. Isabella saw she had
wounded her friend, and casting herself before the Holy
Sacrament, she besought God to kindle in her heart a spark
of that fire of love for the Sacramental Presence which
inflamed the soul of Juliana. A year after, in the church
of S. Martin, Isabella had a vision ; she saw the company
of the Saints pleading the cause of the festival her friend
had at heart, with the Father, and she heard the word go
forth commanding that it should be as they willed. The
joy of Juliana on hearing this was immense. From that
day forward the two friends were united in purpose.
There was at that time a canon of S. Martin's Collegiate
Church, named John of Lausanne, a Swiss, learned and
pious. 1 To him S. Juliana now disclosed her visions and
her mission. He at once consulted Jacques Pantaleon,
archdeacon of S. Lambert's, Hugh of S. Cher, provincial
of the Dominicans, and Guy de Laon, bishop of Cambrai,
and the university of Paris. The unanimous opinion of all
consulted was that the institution of the feast of the B.
Sacrament was in no way contrary to Catholic doctrine, but
was calculated to exalt the devotion of Christian people.
So far Juliana had succeeded; she now desired to
have an office composed in honour of the B. Sacrament.
She applied to those who had so favourably received and
approved her suggestion for the institution of the festival
But they each and all shrank from the task. Nothing
daunted, she addressed herself to a young brother of the
monastery, named John. He was startled at the proposal.
What was he to compose an office in honour of so glorious
* To him the contemporary author of the life of S. Juliana gave the MS. of his life
for revision, as he himself informs us.
*
Aprils.] 6 1 . Juliana. 81
a mystery ? S. Juliana assured him that God would support
him, enlighten him, inspire him with words. She triumphed,
and John of Cornillon undertook the task laid upon him,
" I will do what thou hast desired, on one condition,"
he said ; " that when I take my pen thou wilt have recourse
to prayer."
S. Juliana willingly consented. She began to pray, and
when the brother had accomplished part of his work, he
brought it to the Sister, saying, "Madam (domina mea),
this is sent thee from above. Examine and see if anything
needs correction in the music or the words." And thus
was composed an office, " the virgin praying to Christ, the
young brother composing, and God wondrously assisting," 1
says the historian.
This office was adopted by the College of Canons of S.
Martin's, and was used in that church till S. Thomas
Aquinas had composed his magnificent office for the feast
The Angelical Doctor, however, not having composed anti-
phons for the Benedictus and Magnificat, the Church of
Lidge for long recited those of John of Cornillon, as well
as his hymns for Prime, Terce, Sext, and Nones, which
were deficient in the office of S. Thomas. The office of
John, according to Chapeauville, 2 began with the words,
Animarum dbus. It existed in 1613, when this latter
historian lived, and he relates that in his time " the office
was used in several churches of the diocese of Lie*ge, but
especially in the Collegiate Church of S. Martin, and in
the" parish of S. John Baptist, at Lie*ge," No copies of this
office exist at the present day.
The report of what S. Juliana had undertaken, and in
part accomplished, spread through Lidge. Some of the
clergy supported Juliana, others and that the majority
1 Cbristi virgine orante, juvene fratre componente, Deo autem mirabile aiudliante.
3 Molanus, Chapeauv. Tom ii., p. 645.
VOL. IV. 6
82 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 5 .
regarded her mission as the dream of a visionary, and
laughed at her undertaking. In vain did Hugh de S.
Cher preach and speak in her favour; the people would
not believe. " They treated it as an old wives' tale," says
the historian Lahier; "they discussed it over their cups,
then in the streets and market-place, deriding it as the dream
of a silly woman; others made it their joke, and Juliana's
reputation was torn to tatters in the city and in the country,
so that she became a reproach among the people, and was
mocked, hooted, scorned by all."
At this time a certain Roger was prior of Cornillon.
The hospital was served by brethren, who ministered to
-the leprous men, and sisters, who attended to the sick
women ; and all, brothers and sisters, were subject to the
supreme control of the prior. The supervision of the
hospital belonged to the burgomaster and citizens. The
administration of the revenues of the hospital seems to
have been in the hands of the Mother Superior. It is
possible that Juliana may not have attended sufficiently to
the secular business connected with the property; it may
have been that the prior was ambitious of getting the
administration of the property into his own hands, to have
simoniacally disposed of it, as the contemporary author of
the life of the Saint more than hints ; from whichever cause
it was, one thing is certain, and that is, that Roger de-
manded of S. Juliana an exact account of her receipts and
expenditure, and a surrender of the title-deeds of the
hospital. Juliana peremptorily refused. The prior and
some of the sisters then complained to the magistrates that
Juliana had used the money belonging to the hospital to
bribe the bishop to establish the feast she was always
dreaming about, and which was a novelty no one cared to
see introduced into the Church of Lie*ge.
There was a disturbance. A mob of excited Li^geois
Aprils.] $. Juliana. 83
rushed to the convent, broke into it, and sought for the
account books and title-deeds. They were nowhere to
be found. Then they made search for the prioress. She
also had disappeared. She had, in fact, escaped to S.
Martin's Church, and taken refuge with Eve the recluse.
The bishop now interfered, and sent to have the rights of
the quarrel examined. He bade Juliana remain at S.
Martin's till the conclusion of the investigation. In the
end he nominated prior Roger to be head of the Lazar-
house at Huy, and recalled Juliana to Cornillon, and so
the quarrel was brought to a satisfactory termination. In
1246, Robert of Torote, bishop of Lidge, died in his
country house at Fosses. On his death-bed the office of
the B. Sacrament was read to him, and he recommended
to his diocese the institution of the feast for which it was
composed. Shortly before his last sickness he had assem-
bled a synod of his clergy, and had announced to them
the establishment of the new festival in his diocese ; but no
sooner was he dead than the clergy, with few exceptions,
resolved to ignore this order.
The chapter of S. Martin's were firm, stimulated by Eve
the recluse, and they resolved to celebrate the feast with
dignity on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, next year,
1247. Let the visitor to Lie*ge climb the steep S. Martin's
hill to the noble church that crowns it, and let him look
with emotion at the extreme western chapel of the right
aisle. It was in that chapel that the festival of Corpus
Christi was first celebrated in the Christian world, in the
year 1247. After the death of Robert of Torote, the see of
Lie*ge remained vacant for a twelvemonth, and was then
filled by Henry of Guelders.
The party in the hospital of Cornillon thought the time
favourable for restoring the prior Roger. He was recalled
from Huy by the brethren and some of the sisters, and
84 Lives of the Saints. [April 5
they attempted to reinstate him. But this could not be
done without the consent of the prioress. They in vain
attempted to persuade her to yield ; then the people were
invoked, and this ended in another invasion of the house
by the rabble, and the flight of Juliana with three of her
sisters to the convent of Robertmont, the site of which is
now occupied by the cemetery of Lidge. But Robertmont
was too near to Cornillon to satisfy the reinstated prior,
and the nuns instigated by him declined to allow to Juliana
a lengthened residence under their roof. She therefore
retired to Val-Benoit 1 But thence she was again expelled,
to take refuge in the convent of Val-Notre-Dame, but only
for a short while. With her three companions, Isabella of
Huy, Agnes and Ozilia, she ascended the Meuse and found
a resting-place in Naraur. But now that she had with-
drawn her foot from Ligeois territory, another champion
of the new feast appeared upon it This was Hugh of S.
Cher, Cardinal of S. Sabina, whom John of Lausanne had
consulted on the subject some years before. At this moment
he was in Lige. He had been sent by Innocent IV., in
1248, as legate apostolic to be present at the coronation of
William of Holland at Aix-la-Chapelle. He found the city
in a state of siege, and he therefore withdrew to Lige,
where he had many friends. There he heard the con-
troversy that was being waged relative to the feast prepared
by S. Juliana. He was shown the office. He approved it,
and by his authority confirmed the institution of the feast,
and announced that he would himself celebrate it solemnly
in the church of S. Martin.
The news reached Juliana at Namur, where she was
lodging in a house lent her by the archdeacon of Li6ge.
She was miserably poor, living on alms. But Hymenea of
1 A bridge crosses the Meuse from the site of this ancient house, now converted
into a modern country residence.
-*
A P ril s-] S. Juliana. 85
Hochstadt, abbess of Salzinne, sister of Conrad, archbishop
of Cologne, took up her cause, and by remonstrances with
the prior of Cornillon and the bishop of Lie*ge, obtained for
Juliana an annuity from her large possessions, wherewith
she had freely endowed the hospital of Cornillon many
years before.
Two years after Hugh of S. Cher had pronounced in
favour of the institution of Corpus Christi, at Lie*ge, and
had himself celebrated the festival there, Peter Capocci,
Cardinal of S. George, and apostolic legate at Maestricht,
was sent to Lidge, where he heard all about Juliana and the
feast of the Blessed Sacrament He at once issued an order
that the festival should be celebrated in accordance with the
decree of Hugh of S. Cher.
As long as the two legates resided in Lie'ge, the feast was
celebrated there, but on their departure it fell into disuse,
except in the church of S. Martin,
Near Namur was the abbey of Salzinne, on the banks of
the Sambre. S. Juliana had found a friend and sympathizer
in the abbess Hymenea. Salzinne received Juliana and her
three faithful companions, Isabella, Agnes, and Ozilia,
But one by one they were called away, and Juliana, worn
by exile, poverty, and sickness, remained behind. One
little gleam of pleasure was accorded her, a visit from that
John of Cornillon, who had composed the office for the feast
of Corpus Christi, and who came to see the saintly mother
a few days before he died.
In 1256, Namur was entered by Henry II. of Luxem-
bourg, who kid siege to the citadel. During the two years
that the siege lasted, the country around was wasted with
fire and sword, and the abbey of Salzinne was burnt down.
The abbess and Juliana, had found refuge in Fosses. There
she fell sick, and finding her end approaching, she sent to
implore her old friend, John of Lausanne, to come and
86 Lives of the Saints.
visit her. But for some unknown reason the canon did
not make the journey \ probably the country being overrun
with hostile troops, made it impossible for him to traverse
it. There was some secret which she desired to reveal to
him. She asked repeatedly if he had arrived, and was
always met with a negative Then she turned to a friend,
Ermentrude, but when she began to speak of her approach-
ing end, the nun burst into tears. Then Juliana said,
" Thou hast troubled me, my sister, with these idle tears ;
I will not tell thee any more." Then she sent for a notary.
But as only a young man could be found in the place,
Juliana refused to make use of him for taking down the de-
position she wished to make, and he was sent away. And
so, carrying her secret with her, she departed to her Lord,
April 5th, 1258.
Some of the relics of S. Juliana were sent to Portugal
in 1565 by Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low
Countries. These were carried shortly after by Antony
I. when driven into exile, to Paris. He gave the relics
to his son Emmanuel of Portugal, who preserved them
in his chapel at Brussels. In 1626 he gave them to
the Church of S. Sauveur at Antwerp. In 1746 a
portion of these relics was given to the Church of
S. Martin at Lie"ge. Other portions were secured by
the parishes of Retinnes, Fosses, and S. John Baptist at
Namur.
Jacques Pantaleon, educated at Lie'ge, became pope,
under the title of Urban IV., in 1261. Then Eve the
recluse urged Henry of Guelders, bishop of Li<ge, to
formally demand a recognition of the feast of Corpus
Christ! Urban IV. remembered the consultation in 1230,
on the subject, when John of Lausanne had brought the
vision of S. Juliana before his notice. He authorised the
celebration in 1264, and S. Thomas Aquinas composed the
Aprils.] S. Vincent Ferrier. 87
office for it. The bull of Urban IV. was confirmed in the
council of Vienne, in 1311, under the presidency of
Clement V.
S. VINCENT FERRIES., C, O. P.
(A.D. 1419.)
[Roman Martyrology, Authorities : A life written in 1454 by Pedro
Ranzano, afterwards B. of Lucera ; another by Francis Castilione, in 1571 ;
and other later lives.]
WILLIAM FERRIER and CONSTANCE MIGNELL were the
parents of S. Vincent, who was born at Valencia in Spain in
1357. He early gave tokens of his vocation, for he was
often to be found with his little companions surrounding
him, whilst he preached to them what he had heard in
church.
On reaching man's estate, his father gave him the choice
of three conditions of life. He might either be a Dominican
friar, or marry and settle in his native town, or his father
would send him to Rome and Paris to perfect the remark-
able talents he exhibited, especially in elocution. He
chose to become a friar ; and in the great Order of Preachers
he soon made himself remarkable by his power in the
pulpit. Peter de Luna, then Papal legate in Spain, con-
\ferred on him the degree of doctor. He was wont to
prepare his sermons kneeling before the crucifix with his
eyes on the wounds of the Redeemer. One day he was
required: to preach before a great noble, and he took con-
siderable pains to prepare his sermon according to the rules
of elocution. It was a failure. Next day he preached as
was customary with him, and electrified his hearers. The
prince, who was present, asked him afterwards how it was
that so great a difference existed in his sermons. "Yes-
terday Vincent Ferrier preached," was his answer. " To-
day it is Jesus Christ."
88 Lives of the Saints. [April 5 .
Peter de Luna, becoming pope under the name of Bene-
dict XIII., appointed Vincent to be his chamberlain at
Avignon. Vincent laboured ineffectually to heal the schism
of the popes which then distracted Europe, but his labours
were ineffectual, and full of disappointment and grief for
the condition of the Church, he fell sick, and left Avignon
and the papal court in despair, determined to renounce
politics, and bear the Gospel to the poor. The pope hi
vain attempted to retain him. He was wearied of the strife
and heart-burnings of a court, and the intrigue of political
life, and his pure zeal for souls could alone be satisfied in
preaching God's truth to simple souls ready to receive it.
The rest of his life was spent as a mission preacher. He
went through a great part of Europe, he preached in Cata-
lonia, in Provence, in Dauphin^, in Savoy, in Lombardy,
in Germany, Lorraine, and Flanders. He penetrated to
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and finally came to
Brittany, where he was overtaken with his last sickness and
died.
This remarkable man had a most extraordinary gift for
languages, so that with very little effort, and after no lengthened
study, he was able to preach in any European language.
He died at Vannes in Brittany, and his body is there
preserved. The first Sunday in September the relics are
borne in procession through the streets of Vannes. In the
cholera of 1854, a similar procession was made in hopes of
allaying the ravages of the disorder.
S. Vincent Fender is represented with wings, to symbolize
the speed wherewith he hastened through Europe, or with
a trumpet, to signify the loudness of his call 'to the im-
penitent, or with the name of Jesus written on his breast
S. VINCENT PEK.R1ER. After Cahier.
Aprils.
*
April 6.1 S. Sixtus or Xystus. 89
Aprils.
S. SIXTUS, Pope, M. at Rome, A.D. 127.
SS. CXX., Martyrs in Persia, circ. A.D. 343.
S. MARCBLUNUS, M. at Carthage, A.D. 413.
S. CELESTINE I., Po$e of Rome, A.D. 433.
S. WINEBALD, Ao. o/Troyes in France, circ. A.D. 690.
S. GBNARD, Ah of Flay, A.D. 720
S. BERTRAM, B. ofKirkwallin Orkney, circ. A.D. 839.
B. NOTKER BALBULUS, Mk. ofS. Gall in Switzerland, A.D. 912.
S. CELSUS, Archb, of Armagh, A.D. 1129.
S. WILLIAM OF PARIS, Ab. ofRoskilde in Denmark, A.D. 1203.
S. SIXTUS OR XYSTUS, POPE, M.
(A.D. 127.)
[Roman Martyrology, and those of Ado, Notker, Bellinus, Maurolycus,
&c., but some Martyrologies on April 3rd. Authorities : Notice by S.
Irenasus and in the ancient Martyrologies. ]
j|F this holy pope and martyr almost nothing is cer-
tainly known, except that S. Irenseus speaks of him
as having succeeded S. Alexander, and having been
succeeded by S. Telesphorus in the see of Rome. Although,
in the Martyrologies, he is called a martyr, there is no evidence
that he shed his blood for the faith. He died April 6th,
A.D. 127.
S. MARCELLINUS, M.
(A.D. 413-)
[Roman Martyrology, and in the Spanish Martyrology of Salazar, who
asserts that S. Marcellinus was a native of Toledo in Spain. There is
absolutely no foundation for this assertion, Authorities : S. Augustine
and S. Jerome. The former addressed to Marcellinus his first writings
against the Pelagians, and his De Civitate Dei. Also Orosius, another
contemporary, lib. vii. c. 24 ; and mention in the Theodosian Codex.]
S. MARCELLINUS, tribune and Secretary of State, was an
intimate friend of S. Augustine, In the year 411, he
90 Lives of the Saints. tA P rii6.
assisted as assessor in the Conference of Carthage, between
the Catholics and the Donatists.
These sectaries had obtained a decree from Honorius the
emperor in 409, which allowed them to hold their religious
assemblies in all liberty. Encouraged by this law they
exercised intolerable violence, pillaging houses and burning
farms. When they captured Catholic priests they put quick-
lime and vinegar into their eyes. S. Augustine ascertained
that in one day and in one spot they had re-baptized forty-
eight persons, through intimidation. One of their priests,
named Restitutus, having become a Catholic, the Donatists
seized him, rolled him in mud, beat him, and dressed him
up in derision in a rush-mat. They only yielded to force,
to surrender him, and afterwards when they had the oppor-
tunity they killed him. Another priest, named Innocent,
was mutilated by them, by cutting oiF a finger and plucking
out an eye.
To remedy these disorders, the Catholic bishops assem
bled at Carthage on the i4th June, 410, and resolved on
sending deputies to the emperor Honorius to entreat him
to forbid the Donatists the exercise of their religion.
The deputies of the council of Carthage obtained from
Honorius a rescript, obliging the Donatists to come to a
public conference. The rescript was addressed to Flavian
Marcellinus, the subject of this notice. The rescript
required the Donatists, if they did not appear at the con-
ference, to be despoiled of their churches. Marcellinus
was appointed to act as judge in the conference, and was
required to carry the provisions of the rescript into exe-
cution.
The Donatist bishops assembled at Carthage on the
appointed day, June ist, 411, in great numbers, entering
Carthage in procession to the number of two hundred and
seventy.
S. Marcellinus. 91
The Catholic bishops drew up and presented a letter,
which was subscribed by Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, and
Silvanus, bishop of Summa, which was a true Irenicon.
The Donatists were not heretics, but were schismatics.
They were purists, regarding the Church as consisting only
of the baptized who had not fallen, and rejecting the lapsed,
and restoration through repentance to visible communion.
That the mercy of God could reach those who had fallen
and repented, they were not disposed to deny; but they
refused to restore them to visible participation in the sacra-
ments of the Church. Donatism was a purist reaction
against the relaxed discipline of the Church, and like all
such reactions, it became narrow, bitter, and its members
were inflated with spiritual pride.
Now the Catholic bishops offered to unite with the
Donatists and recognize their orders, to cede to them the
honour of the episcopate, and to unite churches where there
were two bishops, one Catholic, and one Donatist, so that
one should be coadjutor to the other, and if the Donatist
died first, his Catholic coadjutor would succeed him as sole
pastor, and also, if the Catholic died first the Donatist
would succeed him. S. Augustine at the same time preached
in Carthage, and assured the people of the readiness of the
Catholic bishops to receive the Donatists into their churches
and give them their pulpits. The offer was scornfully
rejected by the Donatists, who at first refused to sit in the
same hall with the Catholics. "The sons of martyrs ought
not to meet the offspring of traditors," said one of their
leading bishops.
We need not follow the conference through its sessions.
The Donatists sought for pretexts to evade the question,
but at length Marcellinus pronounced against them ; and
many, won by the liberality of the Catholics, re-entered the
communion of the Church, and more submitted through fear
*-
*
9 2 Lives of the Saints. [April 6.
of the emperor. Throughout the conference Marcellinus
preserved a rigid and judicial impartiality, as the Acts of
the Conference abundantly testify. But when it was closed,
he assumed the office of judge, and then, irritated at the
narrowness and shiftiness of the Donatists, proceeded against
the recalcitrants with great rigour; he set on the rack,
and tortured with iron hooks, heated red in the fire, those
of the Donatists who had killed Restitutus and mutilated
the priest Innocent S. Augustine, fearing lest Marcellinus
should extend his severity to those schismatics who had not
been guilty of crimes, wrote to him to implore him to
moderate his severity, and not to allow the schismatics to
suppose that constraint and persecution were to be used to
force their consciences. " We only desire that the wicked
may be prevented from wrong-doing to others ; we have no
wish to see them robbed of life and mutilated. Let them
be required to pass from their mad restlessness into a
reasonable tranquility, and from their criminal courses to
some useful occupation."
S. Augustine also wrote in the same strain to the pro-
consul Apringius, who was the judge before whom the
Donatists were brought He was the brother of Marcellinus.
S. Augustine again wrote to the latter to exhort him once
more to moderation. " If you will put them to death," said
he; " at least insert in the acts of their condemnation my re-
monstrances." And he implored Marcellinus to imprison the
Donatists instead of killing them, till he had appealed to the
emperor to obtain their pardon.
The Donatists never forgave Marcellinus. An oppor-
tunity soon presented itself for revenging it. Heraclian
was Count of Africa. He revolted in 413, and filled the
ports with naval forces, at the head of which he prepared to
invade Italy; and his fleet, when it cast anchor at the
mouth of the Tiber, indeed surpassed the fleet of Xerxes
April 6j 5. Marcellinus. 93
and Alexander. Yet with such an armament, which might
have subverted or restored the greatest empire of the earth,
the African usurper made a very faint and feeble impression
on the provinces of his rival. As he marched from the
port, along the road which leads to Rome, he was en-
countered, terrified, and routed, by one of the imperial
captains; and the lord of this mighty host, deserting his
friends and his fortune, ignominiously fled hi a single ship.
When Heraclian landed in the harbour of Carthage, he
found that the whole province, disdaining such an unworthy
ruler, had returned to its allegiance. The rebel was
beheaded in the ancient temple of Memory; and the
Donatists, rightly or wrongly, insisting that Marcellinus and
his brother Apringius had supported the usurper Heraclian,
accused them to Marinus, the general of the emperor
Honorius, who had pursued Heraclian. S. Augustine was
then at Carthage, and he endeavoured to save the life of
his friends. As they were in prison, Apringius said to
Marcellinus, " If I suffer for my sins, how is it that you,
who have lived so fervent and Christian a life, have deserved
the same penalty?" "May God," answered Marcellinus
humbly, " do me the favour of making me suffer for my sins
here, instead of reserving them for expiation at the Last
Day." S. Augustine, who was present, was alarmed at these
words, thinking that Marcellinus might have been guilty of
some secret sins of the flesh to which he alluded ; and when
he had an opportunity of speaking to him in private, he
asked him if it were so. Marcellinus smiled, blushed, and
taking the right hand of S. Augustine in both of his said,
" I take to witness this hand of thine which has offered the
sacraments, that neither before nor after my marriage have
I been guilty of a breach of the law of purity." S. Augustine
gives testimony to the piety of his friend, and says that he
was most upright in his judgments, patient with his enemies,
* *
94 Lives of the Saints.
faithful to his friends, and sincere in his religion. Had he
not been restrained by his tender attachment to his wife,
he would have abandoned the world.
One night, when S. Augustine least expected it, Marinus
drew the brothers from prison and executed them.
The severity with which S. Marcellinus treated the
Donatists is much to be regretted. In judging him, we
must remember that he lived at a time when liberty of
conscience was an idea almost incomprehensible to a
Roman magistrate. He was a servant of the emperor, and
made it a point of duty to enforce strict obedience to his
laws, whether they were designed to control actions or
direct consciences. Faith, words, and deeds, were alike
matters of police regulation.
S. CELESTINE I., POPE, M.
(A.D. 43 2 -)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority : His own letters.]
S. CELESTINE I. succeeded Boniface in the papal throne
in 422. His pontificate was memorable on account of
several important questions arising in which he was called
upon to take part. The most grave of these was unques-
tionably the heresy of Nestorius, who was condemned at a
council held in Rome, in the year 430. S. Celestine was
obliged to vindicate the memory of S. Augustine against the
attack of the Semi-Pelagians of the school of Cassian, who
took offence at the Predestinarianism of the learned bishop
of Hippo. He sent S. Palladius, the first missionary, to Ire-
land, and in his time also S. Patrick began his labours.
(See March i7th.)
April 6.1 .5. Notker Balbulus. 95
B. NOTKER BALBULUS, MK.
(A.D. 912.)
[Beatified by Pope Julius II. , at the instigation of the bishop of Con-
stance, in 1514, but not venerated out of Thurgau and S. Gall. Authority:
His life by Eckhardt, dean of S. Gall, A.D. 1220. This is one of the
most delightful of mediaeval memoirs, is full of information concerning the
great music-schools of Metz and S. Gall, and contains many anecdotes
which throw light on the manners of the times. The MS. that has been
published has unfortunately passed through the hands of an ignorant
copyist who has thought fit to interpolate sentences, making the most gross
mistakes. Where Eckhardt had written the emperor Charles, meaning
Charles the Fat, the stupid copyist has written Charlemagne. He has
also added a chapter on the visit of Otho I. to the monastery, where he
meets his nephew Notker Balbulus, who is still alive. As Otho came to
the throne in 936, and Notker Balbulus died hi 912, the blunderis manifest.
The copyist saw in one of the records of S. Gall that Otho visited the
abbey at the time when Notker was there, but this was another Notker,
called the Physician, who was the kinsman of Notker Balbulus. In
another place he confounds them again, and also the Physician with
Notker the Abbot, who was the nephew of Balbulus, And again, he con-
founds Notker the Abbot with Notker Labeo (d. 1022). Notker the Phy-
sician died 1033 ; Notker the Abbot in 973. It is necessary hereto caution
the reader against falling into the error of which many have been guilty, of
confusing with some of these, Notker, B. of Lie*ge, d. 1007. Eckhardt in
his prologue says of his undertaking, " We have laboured to gather into
one the acts, though scanty, which our forefathers have left us in writing
of Notker called the Stammerer, a man then very famous for his learning,
and blessed for his sanctity, and also of his companions, wherever we have
found such accounts in schedules."]
NOTKER BALBULUS, or the Stammerer, was the son of
noble parents, of royal blood, who lived at Heiligawe (Elk),
in the Thurgau. At an early age he entered the monastery
of S. Gall, when he soon made himself remarkable by his
piety and learning. When he was there, Mark, a certain
Irish bishop, passed through Switzerland, with his nephew ^
Msengal, on his way to Rome. On their return from then-
pilgrimage, the Irishmen again rested at S. Gall, where they
were very hospitably received. Notker was struck with the
* *
g6 Lives of the Saints.
genius and learning and musical accomplishments of Maengal,
and thinking that it would be greatly to the advantage of S.
Gall if the Irishman were to remain there, he besought God
earnestly to retain him. His prayer was heard. Msengal
took such a liking to the monastery that he sought and ob-
tained permission from his uncle to remain there. The monks,
thinking the Irish name Msengal somewhat uncouth, called
him Marcellus, or the Little Mark, in contradistinction to
Mark the greater, his uncle, the bishop. Msengal, then, tarried
behind at S. Gall, and became the instructor of Notker and
two favourite fellow pupils, Radpert and Tutillo. These three
especially distinguished themselves for their musical skill, and
thus extended the fame of the song-school of S. Gall.
The history of this song-school as given in Eckhardt's
Life of Notker is too interesting to be passed oven He
says that S. Gregory the Great compiled a collection of the
antiphons of the church, and instituted a musical school at
Rome, whence all Europe derived its ecclesiastical melodies.
But these became corrupted, especially among the Germans
and French, and Church music reached its utmost degrada-
tion in Switzerland. Eckhardt says with grim impatience,
" They received the sweet melodies incorrupt, but the levity
of their minds, which made them intrude some of their own
tunes into the Gregorian song, and their natural barbarity,
made them lose them in their integrity. And indeed Alpine
bodies with their own thundering voices are not adapted to
sweet modulation of tone. The barbarous hugeness of
those tippling throats, when endeavouring to utter a soft
song full of inflections and dipthongs, makes a great roar, as
though carts were tumbling down steps headlong ; and so,
instead of soothing the minds of those who listen, it agitates
and exasperates them beyond endurance." l And then,
1 This passage is, however, not original In Eckhardt; it is found verbatim in
Johannes Diaconus. In Vit. b. Gregorii.
*
April e.] B. Notker Balbulus. 97
adds Eckhard, these Alpine people, if they cannot master
an art all at once, look down on it and despise it, and so,
"being of indisciplined manners and untamed voice,
(incompta voce), not only cannot understand and appreciate
the sweetness of modulation, but obstruct others in acquir-
ing this perception."
Charlemagne having discovered that Church music was
very corrupt, sent to Rome two of his clergy to bring the
correct Gregorian music into his empire, and these
clergy were then settled at Metz, which became the authority
on ecclesiastical music in France. But after a while it was
found that the Church music in France varied greatly from
that at Metz, and an altercation arose, each party accusing
the other of having corrupted the ancient song of the Church.
It was, therefore, necessary to have fresh information on
the subject from Rome, and the emperor sent to pope
Adrian, requesting him to supply him with two priests who
were thorough musicians. The pope readily complied, and
sent two, Peter and Romanus, with authentic copies of the
antiphonary of S. Gregory. But, on reaching the Lago
Maggiore, Peter and Romanus caught cold, "ae're Romanis
contrario quaterentur." Peter soon got well, but Romanns
was so prostrated with the fever that ensued, that he was
obliged to remain at S. Gall, which he managed to reach,
carrying with him one of the antiphonaries they had two
much to the annoyance of Peter, who wanted to keep them
both himself. Peter went on to Charlemagne, who sent
him to Metz ; but Romanus remained at S. Gall, where he
recovered of his cold. Peter, at Metz, composed " jubilies
and sequences," which were called after the place where he
composed them; but Romanus sang his "Romanly and
sweetly," and these melodies Notker in after time adapted
to words. 1 The author of the life of Notker takes great
nos Sanctigallenses retinuimus, qui nos cantilenas Karolo jubente
VOL. IV. 7
98 Lives of the Saints.
credit to his monastery for having a more Roman and
correct form of music than the church of Metz. He says
that at Rome the antiphonary of S. Gregory was kept for
inspection by all, as an ultimate authority, and that in like
manner, at S. Gall, the accurate copy of Romanus was
preserved near the altar of the Apostles, that appeal
might be made to it in case of dispute.
Notker Balbulus became, then, remarkable for his musical
proficiency. He was also no less famous for his knowledge
of divinity. On a certain occasion Charles the Fat visited
S. Gall, and took great pleasure in discoursing with Notker.
His chaplain, an exceedingly haughty and arrogant man,
was jealous and angry, and he not only endeavoured to
make Notker ridiculous by jesting on his infirmity, but also
publicly to confound him. One day he went up to Notker
as he sat composing melodies on his psaltery, and turning
to those who followed him said, " We will put a puzzling
question to this most sapient and profound theologian."
Then to Notker, " Master ! solve us a point in divinity, we
pray. What is God Almighty doing now?"
" God Almighty is doing now what he has done in past
ages, and will do as long as the world lasts : He is setting
down the proud and is exalting the humble/'
Abbot Grimoald, who ruled the abbey when Notker was a
young monk, was somewhat of a courtier and fond of associa-
ting with nobles. Now there was in the abbey-school a young
man named Salomon, son of the count of Ramsweg; and this
youth, being of high birth and great expectations, was
treated in a very different manner from the other young
scholars, and this highly displeased Notker, Rupert, Tutilo,
edocuit, et Antiphonario suo exemplatum, in cantario, sicut Romae est, juxta
apostolorumaram locavit;'* note on the margin of Johannes Diaconus, lib. 4, by an
anonymous scribe of the nth cent., in the library of S. Gall, cod. no. $78. See for
further information on the Song School of S. Gall, "Die Sangerschule S. Gallens
vom achten bis zwolften Jahrtumdert," v. P. Anselm Schubi^er, Einsiedeln, 1858.
* *
April 6.] B. Notker Balbulus. 99
and Hartmann, all boys together and of honourable family.
At length Salomon left school, his parents having died, and
his fellow-scholars thought they were well rid of him. But
Grimoald was made archchaplain of the emperor Louis the
Pious, and coming across Salomon of Ramsweg, pro-
cured his ordination, and obtained for him, a canonry
at Elwangen; afterwards through the favour of Hatto,
archbishop of Mainz, Salomon became abbot of six
monasteries and finally bishop of Constance. Salomon was
fond of S. Gall, and used to reside near the abbey. Though
no monk, he was wont to put on a surplice and daily attend
the offices (lineus diatim introit). This was a breach of
rule, and it highly displeased Notker and his friends.
Salomon hearing of this, desisted from his practice, and no
longer appeared during the day in a surplice. But he was
wont at night to enter the abbey, and going through the
cloisters, assist at Prime. Notker and his friends soon
found out that there was a stranger in the abbey at night,
and they were much offended. The party took counsel
together, and resolved to keep watch for him. Rudiger
was keeping guard when Salomon stole along the cloister
into the church ; then he got a candle and looked at his
face, and found out who it was. Then he exclaimed "By
S. Gall !" for so, says Eckhard, did the Fathers swear. 1
"We cannot suffer a stranger to be about the cloisters in
our habit at this time of night f Salomon implored Rudiger
to excuse him, and promised on the morrow to get per-
mission from the abbot to come in and out of the monastery
in the habit, and to wear his canon's dress only before his
knights, men-at-arms, and servants.
"May God grant," answered the monk, "If once you
put on the habit of S. Gall, that you do not put it off again
till the time comes when all must lay it aside."
i Sic enini Patres jurabant.
*
I0 Lives of the Saints. tA P ru&.
Rudiger, however, consented to bring the request of
Salomon before the abbot. "There were then in our
monastic republic wise and holy men, senators ; Hartmann
who composed the litany beginning, Sanctus humili prece^
and set it to music ; and Notker the Stammerer, who com-
posed sequences ; Ratpert, who invented the litany, Ardua
spes mundi; and Tutilo, the author of Hodie cantandus"
" These men were consulted by the abbot, and after much
hesitation and opposition from the rest of the monks,
Salomon was allowed to attend the offices, on condition
that on entering the cloister he put off his canon's cassock
and put on the Benedictine habit, and that at the conclusion
of his visit he should lay aside the monastic habit and resume
the canon's dress." To understand this alarm of the monks
and opposition to the intrusion of Salomon, we must
remember that the abbeys were often given to favourites of
the emperor, who were not even monks, and that Salomon
was dreaded especially by the brethren of S. Gall, who
knew his rapacious avarice.
Salomon one day brought to the monastery a solid gold
box adorned with jewels, " shaped like a chapel," containing
relics, which he had received from king Arnulf; and he
offered it to the abbey, but the bluff Rudiger said, "It is
the monk, not the gold, that S. Gall wants." It was not
long before what the monks had feared fell out. Salomon
was given the abbey of Reichenau, and then archbishop
Hatto, desiring the wealthier abbey of S. Gall for his
favourite, or, may be, Salomon asking for it, urged the abbot
Bernard to resign, and then Salomon was forced on the
monks as their superior.
A thought had long been working in the brain of Notker.
He saw that the versicle of the Alleluia, sung be-
tween the Epistle and Gospel, was prolonged through
an immense series of notes without words, to allow the
*-
April 6.j B. Notker Balbulus. 101
deacon time to reach the pulpit to chant the Gospel and
was constantly undergoing corruption, or becoming forgotten.
About the year 851, the abbey of Jumieges was burnt by
the Normans, and one of the monks escaping from it, came -
to S. Gall, bringing with him an antiphonary, in which some
prose words were set to this sequence of notes. Notker at
once saw in this a solution to the difficulty, and set to work
to compose sequences, some in prose, and some in rhyme.
His first attempt was "Laudes Deo concinat," and then
"Coluber Adas male suasor." These he showed to his
master Yso, who approved warmly of them, but made some
corrections "so that each note should have its own syllable/'
He afterwards composed others, and Maengal was so pleased
with his melodies that he urged him to collect all his musical
and poetical compositions into one book, but this he was
too modest to do, till much later on in his life, when he
compiled his Book of Sequences at the request of brother
Othar, in 887, and dedicated it to bishop Luitward of
Vercelli, archchaplain of the emperor Charles the Fat.
It is related that one day Notker was in the dormitory
listening to the sound of a mill-wheel which revolved slowly,
as the summer was dry, and there was little water in the
stream that set it in motion. An inspiration took him, and
he composed the hymn and melody, "Sancti Spiritus adsit
nobis gratia."
He sent this hymn, as soon as it was composed, to the
emperor Charles, and received in return, by the same
messenger, the hymn " Veni Creator/' which Charles had
just composed.
On another occasion, as he was watching the erection of
a bridge over the chasm of the Martinstobel, and saw the
peril to which those were exposed who worked at it, he
composed his famous sequence, "Media vita in morte
sumus." (In the midst of life we are in death, of whom
IO2 Lives of the Saints.
may we seek for succour but of Thee, O Lord, &C. 1 )
Notker was in correspondence with many famous men of
his day; as Ottfried of Weissenburg, archbishop Ruodbert
of Metz, and the monk Baltharius, who dedicated to him
his life of S. Fridolin. Archbishop Ruodbert sought to
obtain from the modest monk of S. Gall a hymn on S.
Stephen, the protomartyr, to whom a church had been built
at Metz. Notker sent him the required hymn, and ap-
pended to it these two verses : " Sick and stammering
and full of evil, I Notker, unworthy, have sung the triumphs
of Stephen with my polluted mouth, at the desire of the
prelate. May Ruodbert, who has in a young body the
prudent heart of a senior, may he see a long life, full of
merits/'
Salomon was a resident in the abbey occasionally, in the
year and a-half during which he held the abbacy before he
was appointed to the bishopric of Constance. Sindolf the
refectorer was a cross-grained brother, who disliked the
three poets and musicians, Notker, Ratpert, and Tutilo:
and he continually poured into the abbot Salomon's ear
stories of the discontent of these three men, and retailed
disparaging speeches they had made, or he fancied they
had made, about the abbot. This was cause of great
annoyance to "the three inseparables," as the chronicler
calls them. But one night an opportunity of teaching the
refectorer a lesson presented itself which they were not slow
to seize. By permission of the abbot the friends were
able to go into the writing-room after lauds for study.
Sindolf thought that they were certain to be talking scandal
of the bishop, and so he stole outside a window of the
scriptorium, and put his ear to a cracked pane of glass.
Now Tutilo, a very lively man, saw him slinking to the
1 The original melody of this world-famous sequence may be seen in the above
mentioned " Sangerschule S. Gallens," No. 39, together with many more of Notker's
melodies,
- - #
B. Notker Balbulus. 103
window, so going up to his friends, he said to them in a
whisper, "There he is, with his ear to the glass. Do you,
Notker, because you are so timid, go back to the church ',
but do you, Ratpert, my friend, gently take down the whip
from the chimney corner, run outside, and comfort my heart
by giving it him with all your vigour. 1 As for me, I will
suddenly fling the window open when you come near, and
catch him by the hair of his head, and pull him towards
me with all my might" 8
"Then he, always most keen for the discipline, modestly
went out," says the historian, and hailed strokes on Sindolf
(a dorso ingrandinat) from behind. Sindolf, who was held
fast by the hair, writhed, and kicked, and yelled. Lights
appeared, and the brethren came running from the dormi-
tory to know what was the matter. Ratpert ran away, but
Tutilo screamed out that he had caught the devil, and
begged the brethren to bring up a light that he might see
what his face was like. * Where are Notker and Ratpert? 3
asked his brethren. 'Oh!' said Tutilo, 'they smelt the
devil and ran away to ask succour from heaven, and left me
to do the best I could with this thing walking in darkness
I believe an angel has been sent to chastise him in the
rear/"
Sindolf was obliged to keep to himself for some days
after this, and when the bishop heard the reason, he was
greatly amused. But the refectorer's temper was not
mended by this castigation ; and having found a beautiful
copy of the Canonical Epistles in Greek, which Luitward,
bishop of Vercelli, had sent to Notker, Sindolf spitefully
i Adest ille, et aurem fenestrae affixit Sed tu, Notkere, quia timidulus es, cede
in ecclesiam, Ratperte autem, amice mi I rapto flagello quod pendet in pytali,
deforisaccurre. Tu autem, cor meam confortare et esto robustus; flagdloque in
Ulum totis viribus increpita.
*Ego enim ilium, cum appropinquate te sensero, vitreo citissime readaperto,
captum capillis, et ad me pertractum violenter tenebo.
*-
*
IO4 Lives of the Saints. [A P ru6.
scored and cut it into strips with his knife, " as may be seen
to this day," says the writer. Notker translated the whole
Psalter into German, and his copy existed in the library of
S. Gall, where Eckhard wrote his life. 1
In this life follows a sketch of the two friends of Notker.
Ratpert was wont to walk between Notker and Tutilo, being
the oldest. He was master of the school from his youth
up, a most punctual man at his class ; rarely left the grounds
of the abbey, and wore out two pairs of shoes in the year.
"Beware of making expeditions," said Ratpert to Tutilo;
" They are as dangerous as kisses." Though most sedulous
at school, he was negligent in attending the Canonical
Offices and Mass. " I hear very good Masses," said he,
" when teaching my pupils how to say them." He wrote a
book of the " Cases of the Monastery" from the time of S.
Columbanus to that of bishop Salomon, and composed
litanies, " which," says Eckhard, " the Church sings through-
out the whole world on Rogation days."
Ratpert died on October 25th, A.D. 900.
Tutilo was an active lithe fellow, very eloquent, with a
sweet ringing voice, a good sculptor, painter, and goldsmith.
He was, like his two friends, a good musician, and could
play all manner of riddles (fides) and pipes, and he was
wont to teach the noblemen's sons who studied in the abbey
school to play the fiddle. He was able to make a good
joke, and tell a grave story. "Curse the man !" exclaimed
king Charles one day ; "he is too good a fellow to be a
monk." But with all his joyous lightness of heart, he was
pure and simple in soul, and modest as a young maiden.
He composed his hymn tunes on the rote or psaltery, and
these are the hymns and tunes of which he was the author
" Hodie cantandus" " Omnium mrtutum gemmis? and " Viri
lit is published in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutomcarum of Sch liter. By
ome, this translation is attributed to Notker Labeo instead of Notker Balbulua.
*
- - M
B, Notker Balbulus, 105
Galilai? which he sent to king Charles to be sung as an
offertory.
King Charles composed a tune and sent it to Tutilo to
have words set to it, and Tutilo wrote for it, " Quoniam
Dominus" He also composed the sequence, " Gaudete et
cantate."^
Charles the Fat was very fond of visiting S. Gall's, and
the monks knew him so well that they were wont to call
him "Our Charles" when speaking of him. The emperor
was especially attached to Notker, and often consulted him
on spiritual matters. Once he sent a messenger to S. Gal]
to ask Notker to give him some advice on the conduct of
his soul. Notker was in the garden when the messenger
came, weeding it, and watering the herbs.
41 Tell the emperor to do what I am doing now," was all
Notker's answer to the messenger. Charles, when he heard
this said, "Yes, that is the sum of all. Away with the
weeds of vices, and water the herbs of grace."
Notker was not the author of many works, but those we
have by him are valuable, such as his sequences and his
martyrology. He died in 912, at S. Gall, and was buried
in the Abbey Church of SS. John Baptist and Peter.
1 Eckbart says, " I mention this because the music is different IB character from
the others, as you will know at once, if -you are a musician." A pieee of ivory
carving by Tutilo, which he made for bishop Salomon, is shown at the present day
in the town library of S' Gall.
1 06 Lives of the Saints. iA P rii6.
S. CELSUS, ARCHB. OF ARMAGH.
(A.D. 1129.)
[Inserted by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology. The Irish Martyr-
ologies on April ist, and his deposition on April 4th. Authorities : S.
Bernard, Vit. S. Malachi ; the Chronicle of the archbishops of Armagh, and
that of the Four Masters.]
CELSUS, whose real name was Ceallach, was a grandson
of archbishop Moeliosa of Armagh, the predecessor of
Donald MacAmalgaidh, by his son Aedh, and accordingly
was a member of the family which had for so great a lapse
of time usurped the possession of that great see. But
although of that family, he was a real bishop, having been
actually consecrated on the 23rd September, 1105, before
he had reached the canonical age, being then only twenty-
six years old. This was due to the influence of his family,
which had marked him out as successor to Donald
MacAmalgaidh. He had been preceded in the possession
of the see by eight married men not in Holy Orders ; and
it may well be supposed that the archdiocese had fallen into
grave disorder. S. Bernard tells us that every part of
Ireland was affected through this scandal with a great
dissolution of ecclesiastical discipline and neglect of religion.
Barbarism, he adds, amounting to a sort of paganism, had
usurped Christian practices, and bishops were changed and
multiplied without order or regularity, according to the
mere pleasure of the metropolitan of Armagh, so that
almost every parish church had a bishop of its own.
S. Celsus laboured to remedy these sad disorders, by his
exemplary conduct, charity, preaching, erection of churches,
and by laying down rules of discipline and morality for the
clergy and people. His first recorded act was to visit
Ulster in 1106, a year after his ordination ; but this seems
to have been as much for temporal as for spiritual purposes,
S. Celsus. 107
the collection of dues paid to the see of Armagh. In the
same year he made a similar visitation to Monster, where
he appears to have been well received, as, besides the usual
contributions according to the so-called "Law of S. Patrick/'
many presents were made to him.
In mi, Celsus attended at the great synod of Fiadhmac-
Aengussa, together with Moelmury O'Dunain, archbishop
of Cashel, fifty other bishops, three hundred priests, and
three thousand persons of the clerical order, besides
Murtogh O'Brian, king of Lethmogha, and the nobles of his
kingdom. In this synod the see of Cashel was by S. Celsus
made to be an archi-episcopal and metropolitan see, but
subordinate to the primatial one of Armagh. This act of
Celsus was afterwards confirmed by pope Innocent II., and
thus there were in Ireland two archbishops invested with
full canonical jurisdiction, the primate, who reserved to
himself the Northern half, and the primatial rights over all '
Ireland; and the archbishop of Cashel, who was charged
with the care of the Southern half.
Celsus was appointed bishop of Dublin in 1121, with
the common consent of the Irish and Northmen. This
must have been after the 4th of July in the said year, on
which bishop Samuel O'Haingly died. Probably his object
was to bring that see under his jurisdiction, and to put an
end to the jurisdiction of Canterbury over any part of
Ireland. Waterford and Limerick had been already placed
under the archbishop of Cashel, and the Irish bishops,
particularly Celsus, considered it very unbecoming that the
Church of Dublin should remain separated from the body
, of the Irish hierarchy. Whether Celsus actually governed
the see of Dublin it is not possible to ascertain, but it is
certain that a majority of the burgesses and clergy of Dublin
opposed his plan, and elected one Grenn or Gregory, not
yet a deacon, to be their bishop, and sent him to England to
io8 Lives of the Saints.
Ralph, archbishop of Canterbury. In the letter he took
with him, the citizens of Dublin expressed their desire to
remain subject to the see of Canterbury, and complain,
"know that the bishops of Ireland entertain a very great
jealousy against us, and most of all the one who resides at
Armagh, because we are unwilling to submit to their ordi-
nation, but wish to be always under your domination."
These Norsemen, citizens and electors of Dublin, who
desired to keep their see separate from the Irish Church,
were supported by king Turlogh O'Connor, who had become
master of Dublin in 1118. He wrote to Henry I. of
England to recommend him to support the request of the
burgesses of Dublin. In consequence of which Henry
ordered the archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate Gregory
and send him to Dublin. Gregory was ordained deacon
and priest by the bishop of Salisbury at Devizes, on Sept.
24th, 1 121, and was consecrated bishop by Ralph arch-
bishop of Canterbury at Lambeth on October 2nd.
After his return to Dublin, no further effort was made to
bring Dublin under Irish ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and
Celsus, being a man of peaceable disposition, seems to have
acquiesced in the appointment of Gregory.
In 1125, S. Celsus roofed and repaired the cathedral of
Armagh, which had remained partly uncovered since 995,
in which year the city had been laid waste by a conflagra-
tion. In 1126, he consecrated the church of SS. Peter and
Paul; and after that spent thirteen months out of his
diocese, going through various parts of Ireland, preaching
peace, and harmony, and labouring to put a stop to the
civil war which raged throughout almost the whole island.
The adjoining see of Connor being vacant, S. Celsus
ordained to it S. Malachy, a favourite disciple. And now
Celsus felt that his end was approaching, and he was
anxious to put a stop to the hereditary succession to the
APHIS.] S. Celsus. 109
arch-diocese, which had belonged to his family, and which
had been in most cases a curse, and in only one a blessing
to the Irish Church. Accordingly he drew up a will in
which he declared his intention of appointing Malachy to
the primatial see of Ireland. This he communicated to
persons both present and absent, and particularly to the two
kings of Munster.
Shortly before his death, a woman of tall stature and
reverend countenance appeared in a vision to S. Malachy,
and on being asked who she was, answered that she was the
spouse of Celsus (that is, the Church of Armagh), and then
she handed to him a pastoral staff, and vanished. After a
few days, Celsus being on his death-bed, sent his staff and
crosier to Malachy, and he saw by this what was the signifi-
cation of his dream. Celsus was then at Ardpatrick in the
present county of Limerick, where he died on the ist April,
1129, in the 5oth year of his age. His body was removed,
according to his will, to Lismore, and honourably interred
there, in the burying-place of the bishops, on the 4th. The
insertion of S. Celsus in the Roman Martyrology on the 6th
April instead of the 4th, is due to an oversight of Baronius,
who mistook a IV. for VI.
*
* . -
no Lives of the Saints.
April 7.
S. HEGESIPPUS, C. at Rome, circ. A.D. 180.
S. CALLIOPIUS, M. at Pompeiopolis> in Cilicia, A.D. 304.
S. APHRAATES, If. in Syria, end oftfh cent.
S. GEORGE, B. ofMitylene, circ. A.D. 816.
B. EBERHARDT, Mk. at Schaffhausen^ Tith cent.
S. AIBERT, P.ff. at Crespin, in Hainault, A.D. 1140.
B. HERMANN JOSEPH, C. at Steinfeld, after A.D. 1230.
B. URSULINA, V. at Farina, A.D. 1410.
S. HEGESIPPUS.
(ABOUT A.D. 180.)
[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Bellinus, Maurolycus, and Roman Martyr-
ology. Authorities : S. Jerome, De Script. Eccl., c. 22 ; Eusebius, lib.
iv. c. 18, 22.]
JESIPPUS was a Jew by birth, and he formed
one of the Christian community at Jerusalem.
He visited Rome during the pontificate of S.
Anicetus, and on his way passed through several
Churches, especially that of Corinth; everywhere to his
great joy he found the true faith taught as it was at Jeru-
salem. He remained at Rome till after the death of Pope
Soter, and composed there his history in five books, which
contained the history of the Church from the death of
Jesus Christ to his own times. This work, of which
Eusebius, the historian, made great use, is unfortunately
lost
S. CALLIOPIUS, M.
(A.D. 304.)
[Greek Mensea and Menology of the Emperor Basil. Modern Roman
Martyrology, inserted by Baronius. Authority : the Ancient Greek Acts,
which have every appearance of being on the whole genuine, though with
certain small interpolations.]
S. CALLIOPIUS was the son of a pious and wealthy
* -- : - .
April 7.3 S. Calliopius. 1 1 1
Christian widow named Theoclia, at Pergos in Pamphylia.
The youth was well educated under his mother's care,
and on the breaking out of persecution, she sent him away
in a private vessel with servants and goods to some place
where the persecution was not raging with as great violence
as in Pamphylia.
Calliopius, unfortunately, did not go far, but landed al-
most immediately in the adjoining province of Cilicia, at
the port of Pompeiopolis. There he allowed himself to be
drawn into a discussion and an avowal of his Christianity,
whereupon he was denounced to the prefect, Maximus, who
sent for him, and when he heard how wealthy he was, and
of noble birth, he endeavoured to induce him to renounce
his faith by the offer of his daughter in marriage. But the
youth replied that he could not marry without consulting
his mother first, and that as to abjuring Christianity, that
was out of the question. Maximus then tried his constancy
with leaded whips, and finally, when he found the lad
invincible, he lost his temper, and ordered him to be bound
to the wheel. This was a horrible torture, as the wheel
was covered with razor blades. The limbs of the sufferer
were twisted among the spokes of the wheel, and then it
was set up horizontally on the axle over a fire. The fire
however went out, and after the martyr's body was a mass
of bruises and gashes, he was taken down and cast into
prison. Some of the servants of Calliopius in the mean
time had made the best of their way to Pergos, and had
told Theoclia that her son was in the hands of the governor;
and she at once hasted to Pompeiopolis to see her child.
She found him in prison, his whole body swollen and fester-
ing, so that he was unable to rise to meet her from the
floor on which he lay prostrate ; but he greeted her with a
sweet smile, and said, " Welcome, mother ! thou art come
to be a witness to the sufferings of Christ" That is of one
* *
12 Lives of the Saints.
of the members of Christ's mystical body. 1 Theoclia
answered, " Blessed am I, and blessed is the fruit of my
womb, which I consecrated to Christ, as Hannah dedicated
Samuel of old !"
She remained that night in prison, sitting at his feet and
washing and binding up his wounds.
On the morrow he was brought before the prefect, who
sentenced him to be crucified on the following Friday,
which was Good Friday. Then the mother bribed the
executioners not to crucify him in the same manner as his
Lord and Master; so they nailed him to the cross head
downwards, and thus he expired. But Theoclia stood and
watched by the cross, till the greyness of death overspread
her son's body, and then the executioner came and took
him down, and laid him in his mother's lap. Theoclia put
her arms round his neck, and bowed her face upon his dead
brow, and sighed, and lo ! her heart was broken, and she
was with Christ and his martyr.
S. APHRAATES, H.
(END OF 4TH CENT.)
[By the Latins on April 7th ; by the Greeks on Jan, 29th. Authority :
Theodoret, B. of Cyrus, in his Philotheus and Hist. Ecclesiastica. Also
Theophanes. Theodoret had been taken to visit him and received his
blessing when he was a child.]
APHRAATES was a Persian by birth, of an illustrious,
heathen family, of the race of the Magi On his conversion
to Christianity, he abandoned his country, and retired into
a cell near Edessa. After having spent some time there he
came to Antioch, then torn with heresy. He took lessons
in Greek, and laboured in his broken jargon of Persian and
* As when Paul persecuted the Church, Christ addressed him with, "Saul,
Saul, why persecutes! them Me/* -Acts ix. 4.
. Apkraates. 113
Greek to sustain the Catholics, then united under Flavian
and Diodorus, against the Arians, who were supported by
the Emperor Valens. 1 Acting in concert with these
champions of the Catholic cause, he sent Acacius of Bercea
to S. Julian Sabas, that he might urge him to come to Antioch
to confirm the faithful. The presence of the emperor in
Antioch did not intimidate him. One day Valens met him
hastening to the oratory by the river's side where the
Catholics met.
" Whither in such haste ?" asked the emperor.
"Sire! I am going to pray for the whole world, but
especially for the empire."
" But why dost thou, who professest a solitary life, come
forth from thy cell and mix with a throng in public assem-
blies?"
" Prince/' said the holy man ; " if I were a young virgin
sitting at home in my bower, and my father's house caught
fire, what wouldest thou counsel me ? To sit still and be
burnt, or to bestir myself to extinguish the blaze ?"
" Why, man, labour to put the fire out/'
" I am doing so now, Sire ! My Father's house is on
fire, heresy is consuming it, and I rush forth from my bower
to arrest the conflagration. Fare thee well P and he sped
away, staff in hand.
The story is told of him that Anthimius, afterward (in
405) prefect of Antioch, but then an ambassador to Persia,
passing through Antioch visited him and presented him
with a coat " Sir," said the hermit ; " I have a dear old
friend who has been with me many years. Would you have
me change him for a new friend ?" " Certainly not," said
Anthimius. "Then," said the hermit^ "you will excuse
me if I stick to my old coat"
* See life of S. Meletius, Feb. zath.
VOL. IV. 8
* - -
ri4 Lives of the Saints. . [Apm*.
B. EBERHARDT, MK.
(lITH CENT.)
[Venerated at Schaflhausen. Authority : A life in an Ancient Chroni-
cle of Scbaffhausen, published by the Bollandists.J
EBERHARDT was the son of Eppo, count of Nellburg,
and Hedwig, daughter of S. Stephen, king of Hungary.
She was a very religious woman, and was wont to rise in
the night to say her prayers, and recite psalms. Eppo,
impatient at being disturbed in his slumbers, one night
slipped from her side, and taking her psalter away, threw it
into the fire. Eberhardt their son derived his earnest piety
from his mother. He married a wife called Ida, or Itta, and
by her had six sons, of whom Otto became in after years
(1067-1077) Archbishop of Treves ; Eginhardt became a
monk in the abbey of Reichenau , and afterwards, in 1071,
its abbot ; Burchardt, who succeeded his father as count of
Nellburg; two sons who fell in battle in 1075, fighting
under Henry IV., and one who died young.
Count Eberhardt founded the Benedictine abbey of
Schaffhausen. He had long wished to give a portion of his
great possessions to God, and he took counsel with an old
boatman who ferried across the Rhine. This old man told
him that he had seen a bright light, like a fiery cross, at a
certain spot on the river bank, and there Eberhardt laid
the foundations of his abbey. It was dedicated in 1066.
After some years he left the world, and retired into the
monastery he had built
S. AIBERT, P. H.
(A.D. 1140.)
[Belgian and Benedictine Martyrologies on April yth and May 2nd.
Authority : A life written by a contemporary, Robert, Archdeacon of
Oostrevand, dedicated to Alois, B. of Arras, d. 1148.]
S. AIBERT was the son of a knight Aldbald of Espen,
April 7.3 . S. Albert. 115
near Tournai. From early childhood he loved prayer
above everything, and would rise at night and kneel on the
floor. But the servants having detected him, and com-
plained to his father, the child hid himself in the sheep-fold
every day, and prayed there, till he was found one day fast
asleep on his knees, with his head in the straw, as he had
fallen, overcome with weariness. Wherever he was, in the
fields or at home, if he heard the church bells beginning to
tinkle, he at once ran to church. One day, when he was
grown up, he heard a jongleur sing a ballad about S.
Theobald the hermit, and his conversion from the world.
Then Albert went and placed himself under the direction
of a hermit named John, who lived in a retired wood near
Crespin. 1 After a pilgrimage to Rome, made in company
with the abbot of Crespin, he entered the monastery of
Crespin, in 1090.
After twenty-five years in the cloister, in 1115, he re-
turned to a solitary life in the wilderness. A story is told
of him when there, that one winter the waters were out, so
that none could reach him, and he was unable to hear mass.
This troubled him sorely, and he called on the Blessed
Virgin to succour him. Then he fell asleep, and lo ! he
saw a very beautiful woman enter his cell followed by a
troop of maidens. At this Aibert exclaimed, " Women in
my cell ! It is not permitted. Go out instantly." " Pardon
me, brother, I am the Virgin Mary, and thou hast sum-
. moned me," answered she ; " And now why dost thou ask
to hear masses, when thy whole life and acts are the
solemnity of masses." Then she put a piece of bread into
his mouth and vanished. Such was his dream, and so
implicitly did he believe in its reality, that he resolved not
to eat bread any more, but only herbs.
To obviate the inconvenience from which he had suffered,
1 Between Valenciennes and S. Ghislain.
Lives of the Saints. [A P ru 7 .
Burchardt, B. of Cambrai, ordained him priest ; after which
he was wont to say two masses every day, one for the
living, and the other for the dead. Every night he recited
the whole psalter, or read nine lessons ; and every day he
bowed his knee a hundred times, saying at each genu-
flexion, " Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee !
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of
thy womb." Crowds came to him from all the country
round, and he gave them good advice, heard their con-
fessions, and had such power that he converted many
sinners. He died in the fiftieth year of his monastic life,
in 1140, on Easter Day, and was buried in his cell. His
body was enshrined in 1303, and again in 1464. It was
saved in the Calvinist riots of 1566, parts are at Tournai,
other portions at Espain and Mons.
B. HERMANN JOSEPH, C.
(AFTER A.D. 1230.)
[Venerated at Cologne. Authorities : A life by a monk of the same
monastery and a contemporary. This life is made up of two parts, that
concerning his youth, and that concerning his monastic life, and this latter
portion appears to have been written first. Another life in verse, by
William Vriessenich, composed in 1358. There are others, later, of less
authority.]
THE Blessed Hermann was the child of poor parents in
Cologne. From an early age his delight was to be in
church. A pretty story of the little Hermann is told by
the chronicler of his life. The child once entered the
church with a rosy apple in his hand, which had been given
to him. He went up to an image of the Virgin Mother,
seated with her Divine Son on her knee, held out the
apple to the Holy Child, and placed it in his hand. We
may probably attribute to the imagination of the little boy
the incident of the image closing His stony hand upon the
apple, in token of acceptance,
B. Hermann Joseph. 1 1 7
One day Hermann fell asleep in Church, looking at some
statues, above the pulpit, of S. John the Evangelist, S.
Mary the Virgin, and the Child Jesus. In his dream the
figures began to move, and S. Mary and S. John to play
with the Holy Child. Then the B. Virgin, noticing the
little boy below, beckoned to him, and leaning down gave
him her hand, to help him up to where they were, and
then S. Mary and S. John sat down, and left Hermann to
play with the Child Jesus.
Another charming story of the childhood of the little
Hermann is this. One cold winter's day he came to church
with bare feet through the snow, and knelt down and fell
into a trance. Then he saw the Virgin Mother standing
before him ; and she said, " My child, why art thou bare-
footed?" "Because I have not got a pair of shoes,"
replied Hermann. " There, child," said the Holy Virgin,
pointing to a stone, " thou wilt find money yonder for the
purchase of shoes. And whenever thou needest money for
boots or slates or pencils, (calceis, tabulis, aut stylis) or
any other things necessary to thee, go to that stone, and
there thou wilt find pennies." This was related by Hermann
to the writer of his life a few days before he died.
At the age of twelve, Hermann entered the Order of
Premontre', or Norbertine Canons, at Steinfeld, in the diocese
of Cologne, and was sent into Friesland to complete his
education. A curious story is told by his biographers of
his life there. The boy was troubled with a painful and
distressing eruption on the head which made him ashamed
of appearing among his fellow-scholars. But one night,
" when he had given his little body sleep, he felt some
animal, I know not whether reptile or bird, come and
with its beak remove the unpleasant scab, gently, and the
pious boy was uninjured by this corrosion, nay, on the
contrary, was healed thereby." The words are those of his
biographer.
nS Lives of the Saints.
He returned to Steinfeld as he was growing out of boy-
hood, and was set to serve in the refectory. He had now
no time for reading, and little for praying, so that even the
offices to the recitation of which he was bound were
obliged to be left unsaid. This troubled him greatly, but
he was told in answer to prayer, by the Virgin Mother,
" Nothing that thou canst do is more precious than to serve
the brethren in love/'
From the refectory he was in course of time exalted to
the more congenial custody of the sacristy. He had now
leisure for contemplation and prayer, and he began at the
same time to fall into ecstasies and see visions. It is said
that one morning at Lauds, as the Benedictus was being
sung, he was sensible of an exquisite odour of incense.
This surprised him, as in the Norbertine Order incense is
offered at the Benedictus only on the feasts of the Nativity,
Easter, Pentecost, and the Dedication. And lo ! he saw
two angels with censers wafting fragrance, and going down
the line of the friars, they bowed to and censed some, but
passed by others, according as they prayed, or were
occupied in mind with worldly matters.
The heart of the Blessed Hermann was wholly given to
his dear heavenly Mother. Her radiant form shone on
him as the moon in the night, and lightened before him in
the day. He composed prayers to her, and sang hymns in
her honour, and loved to call himself her chaplain. And
in return she visited and watched him, and once, when he
had been bled in the arm, and, in sleep had flung himself
on the wounded arm so as to endanger the bandages, she
stood before the sleeper's eyes, and touched him, and bade
him turn over, and lie on the other side. He became so
absorbed in his devotion to the Immaculate Virgin, that he
was incessantly falling into raptures, in which he saw her,
and at night she WAS present in his dreams. The highly
April 7J B* Hermann Joseph. 119
excited, nervous condition of the mystic laid him open to
such influences. It will not do for us to accept as true all
the extraordinary visions he is reported to have seen,
especially as some of these are of an eccentric and question-
able character; as for instance his marriage with the
B. Virgin, performed by an Angel, who joined their hands
and said, " See, I give thee this virgin in marriage, as she
was married to Joseph ; whose name do thou take to thy-
self, as thou receivest his bride/' After this vision
Hermann adopted the name of Joseph, and in addressing
Our Lady, was wont to call her "Rose/' Whenever he
thought much of her, her form appeared before him full oj
beauty, but when he was distracted by worldly cares, she
appeared to him as an old woman with wrinkles. But
perhaps the absurdity of the writer of this memoir reaches
its greatest bathos, when he narrates how the B. Hermann-
Joseph possessed himself of two heads of young damsels of
the company of S. Ursula, which were discovered in his
time, and how these two skulls were put in a box, and the
box being accidentally set on the ground, some one visiting
Hermann-Joseph, ignorant of what it contained, sat down
on the box. But the lid burnt him like a plate of red-hot
iron, and he jumped up in alarm and pain, and thus as-
certained that he had been guilty of irreverence to two
maidens of a saintly company.
Hermann- Joseph was ordained priest, and when he
offered the holy sacrifice, was remarkable for his great
reverence and devotion. A friar once found him standing
lost in meditation before the altar, vested, and with tapers
burning, an hour after he had finished saying mass. In his
absence of mind he had forgotten to return to the vestry.
His reverence was carried to an extravagance which must
strike even the most devout as grotesque ; for he used to
pare off his finger nails, and shave off the hair of his upper
*
I2O Lives of the Saints. [April*.
lip, and keep the nail parings and scraps of hair reverently,
because they had touched the Holy Sacrament A pretty
story is told of him when offering the holy Sacrifice on a
bitter winter day. He was long engaged in private devo-
tion before the altar, and a nun in the church saw in
vision our Lord on one side of him, and S. Mary on the
other, chafing his numbed hands between their own. She
told Hermann what she had seen, but he assured her that
he had been quite unconscious of the cold, and had seen
nothing of what she described.
Hermann was exceedingly skilful in making clocks, and
many* places were supplied with time-pieces of his manu-
facture. He also composed a commentary on the Song of
Solomon, and some other treatises on sublime contem-
plation, which give us a truer insight into the real power
and excellence of the man than the unfortunate " life " by
his fellow-canon. In this life there is much that is
beautiful and wholesome, but there is more that is offensive ;
what is objectionable, we may hope is to be attributed to
the want of judgment of the writer.
Before his death he was afflicted with great nervous
agitation, so that, for some time, he was obliged to desist
from saying mass. He was especially alarmed at the
appearance of spiders and flies, which filled him with
nervous trepidation, supposing that the devils were dis-
guised under their forms.
The relics of Hermann-Joseph are preserved at Steinfeld,
but portions are at Cologne and in Antwerp. His presen-
tation of an apple to the Blessed Virgin or Holy Child is a
favourite subject of representation with artists.
April 8.2 .S'.S'. Herodion, Asyncrihis, &c. 121
Aprils.
SS. HERODION, ASYNCRITUS, PHLEGON, AND HERMAS, MM., ist cent.
S. DIONYSIUS, B. of Corinth, circ. A.B 180.
S. EDESIUS, M. at Alexandria, A.D. 304.
S. AMANTIUS, S. of Como, circ. A.D. $46.
S. PERPETUUS, B. of fours, circ. A.D, 490.
S. WALTER, Ab. ofS. Martin near Pontoise, end of nth cent.
B. ALBERT, B. of fercelli, lot. Po.tr. of Jerusalem A.D. 1214.
SS. HERODION, ASYNCRITUS, PHLEGON, AND
HERMAS, MM.
(IST CENT.)
[In the Greek Menaea and Menology on the day these four, together
with Agabus and Rufus. Agabus is named in the Roman Martyrology on
Feb. isth, and Rufus on Nov. 2ist ; Hennas on May gth. On this day in
the Roman Martyrology only Herodion, Asyncritus, and Phlegon. Au-
thorities : The Pseudo-Hippolytus on the Seventy-two Disciples, and
mention in the Mensea and Menology.]
UNTS HERODION, ASYNCRITUS, PHLE-
GON, and HERMAS, mentioned in Romans
xvi. 14, by S. Paul, who sends to them his salu-
tation are said to have suffered for their faith.
Herodion, a kinsman of S. Paul, was ordained first priest,
and afterwards first bishop in Thessaly at Novae Patrse.
His face was crushed with stones, and then he was
suspended from the wooden horse, and run through with a
sword. Asyncritus was ordained bishop of Hyrcania, where
he also suffered. Phlegon became bishop of Marathon,
where, to use the words of the Mensea, playing on his name
Phlegon, from phlego, to burn -
"Phlegon extinguished the burning flame of ire,
And saw those spirits which David calleth fire."
An allusion to the words of the Psalm, " He maketh His
angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire." Hermas
is said to have been bishop of Philippi in Macedonia.
122 Lives of the Saints. [Aprils.
S. DIONYSIUS, B. OF CORINTH.
(ABOUT A.D. 180.)
[Greek Mensea on Nov. 29th. Roman Martyrology and Usuardus,
Maurolycus, Molanus, and the Bollandists on April 8th ; but some Latin
Martyrologies on March sand. Authorities : Eusebius, lib. iv. c. 21-23 ;
ii. c. 25.]
S. DIONYSIUS, bishop of Corinth, is mentioned by
Eusebius among the ancient writers of the Church, and he
gives an account of his epistles which were extant in his
time. He says that Dionysius was his authority for stating
that SS. Peter and Paul suffered at the same time in Italy,
after having visited Corinth, confirming the Church there.
The relics of S. Dionysius are said to have been carried
to France in 1215, by Hemerick, prior of S. Denys, near
Paris, and solemnly enshrined there on Feb. 2ist, 1216.
S. WALTER, AB.
(END OF IITH CENT.)
[Galilean Martyrology. His translation is celebrated variously on May
3rd, 4th, or soth. Authority: Two ancient lives, one by a monk of
Pontoise, a disciple of S. Walter and eye-witness of the greater part of
what he describes ; the other of uncertain date.]
WALTER, in Latin Galterius, in French Gautier, was born
in the village of Andainville, in Picardy, towards the end of
the reign of Robert I. He assumed the Benedictine habit
in the abbey of Rebais, in the diocese of Meaux. It
happened that an unfortunate peasant was locked up by the
abbot in the monastery dungeon for having been guilty of
some wrong done to the property of the monastery, and he
left him there to perish of starvation. Walter, filled with
pity, at night fed the emaciated wretch with his own food,
and opening the prison door took him on his shoulders, for
he was too far gone with exhaustion to be able to walk, and
S. Walter. 123
carried him out of the monastery and placed him where he
would be safe. In the morning, the abbot and brethren
finding their captive gone, and ascertaining that Walter had
liberated him, fell on Walter and beat him unmercifully.
Walter was elected by the monks first abbot of S. Germain's
near Pontoise. 1 He received episcopal benediction for his
office, and king Philip I. gave him the pastoral stafij holding
it by the shank of the crook ; but Walter put his hand upon
that of the king, saying, " It is not from thee, but from God,
that I receive my spiritual authority."
After a while, wearied of the burden of the charge, he
fled by night to Cluny, but his monks brought him back
again; then he retired into a cave near his monastery.
Again he attempted to fly, but was brought back again.
Afterwards he visited Rome, and implored pope Gregory
VII. to relieve him of his charge, but in vain.
On the assembling of a council of bishops and abbots at
Paris, in 1092, to receive and consult upon letters received
from the pope touching the marriage of priests, and for-
bidding the faithful to assist at masses celebrated by married
priests, the bishops having declared that " these commands
were intolerable, and altogether irrational/' S. Walter
stoutly opposed them, and was subjected to great abuse and
even to blows for his advocacy of celibacy; and some of
the royal servants so far forgot themselves as to spit in his
face and draw him out of the council before the king. But
Walter declared, " I will die rather than yield." He was
therefore, cast into prison. At this time the bad habit of
sitting during the recitation of the Psalms in choir had
crept into the Church, but Walter never would yield to
indolence, for to extreme old age he stood during the sing-
ing of the Psalms.
1 Afterwards the dedication was altered to S. Martin.
*
124 Lives of the Saints.
April 9.
S. MARY, the wife of Cleopas, ist cent.
S. PROCHORUS, MB. of Nicomedia, ist cent.
S. EUPSYCHIUS, M. at Ceesarea in Cappadocia t A.D. 362,
S. BADEMAS, AT. in Persia, circ. A.D, 376.
S. ACACIUS, B. of Ainida in Mesopotamia, $thcent.
S. MARCELLUS, B. ofS. Die, end of 6th cent.
S. WALTRUDIS, 4bss. at Mons in Belgium, end ofyth cent.
S. HOOH, B. of Rouen, A.I>. 730.
S. CASILDA, P. at Burgos in Spain, n;A cent.
S. GOUCHER, Prior at Aureil, A.D. 1130-
S. MARY, THE WIFE OF CLEOPAS.
(1ST CENT.)
[Roman Martyrology. Venerated at Veroli near Frosinone, in Italy ;
and at Aries on May 2$th ; at Rheims on May nth ; at Ciudad-Rodrigo in
Portugal on April gth. Authority : Mention in the Gospels. Acts of SS.
Mary, the mother of James, and Salome exist written after the year 1491,
in which year, says the author, he was cured of the stone. These acts, it
is needless to say, are altogether apocryphal.]
' the Arabic " History of Joseph the Carpenter,"
a work well known in the Middle Ages, and
considered by the best authorities to be of a
date not later than the fourth century, we are
told :
"There was a man whose name was Joseph, sprung from
a family of Bethlehem, a city of Judah, and the city of
David the king. And he followed the trade of a
carpenter, and, after the manner of all men, took a wife.
Moreover he begat unto himself sons and daughters to
wit, four sons and two daughters. And these are the names
of them Judas, Justus, James, and Simon; and the names
of the two daughters, Assia and Lydia. At length the wife
of Joseph the Just died, intent in all her works upon the
*-
April 9 .] S. Mary. 125
Divine glory. .... Now when Joseph the Just was made
a widower, Mary (his future espoused wife) .... had ac-
complished twelve years .... And, after Joseph had
taken her to his house, Mary found James the Less in the
house of his father, broken in mind and sad by reason of
the death of his mother, and she brought him up. Where-
fore she is called Mary the mother of James And
Justus and Simon, the elder sons of Joseph, having married
wives, went away to their families. Both the daughters
likewise married, and departed to their houses. But Judas
and James the Less and the Virgin .... remained in the
house of Joseph." 1 And the early childhood and com-
panionship of Jesus and James are referred to incidentally
in the following account related in the " Gospel of Thomas
the Israelite" : "And Joseph sent his son James to tie up
wood and carry it into his house ; and the child Jesus also
followed him. And as James was gathering the faggots, a
viper bit the hand of James. And being sore afflicted and
about to die, Jesus drew nigh, and breathed on the bite,
and straightway the pain ceased, and the animal burst
asunder, and James continued to remain healed." 2 The
account occurs, substantially the same, in the " Book of the
Birth of the Blessed Mary, and of the Infancy of the
Saviour;" 3 in the "Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour," 4
believed to be of the fifth or sixth century; and in the
Syriac "Gospel of the Boyhood of our Lord Jesus," 5 be-
lieved to be the most ancient extant form of the so-called
Gospel of S. Thomas.
i Codex Apoc. Nov. Test." Edit. Thilo, cap. i. iv., xi. * Cap. xvi. Edit. Thilo.
* Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha." Edit. Tischendorf, cap. xlL, ThUo's version
only goes as far as cap. xxv.
*Cap.xUii. Edit. Thilo.
s Cap. xiv. Edited, from the Synac, with, an English translation and notes, by W.
Wright, LL.D. London, 1865.
T26 Lives of the Saints*
Several passages of Scripture will also at once occur, as
throwing additional light upon the subject. Thus (Matt,
xii. 46-50; Mark iii. 31-35; Luke viii. 19-21), "While he
yet talked to the people, behold his mother and his brethren
stood without, desiring to speak with him/' (John ii. j 2),
"After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his
mother, and his brethren, and his disciples." (Acts i. 14),
" Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren/' (John vii. 3),
"His brethren, therefore, said unto him, Depart hence/'
And again, more particularly (Matt. xiii. 55, 56, and Mark
vi. 3), the Jews asked, " Is not this the Carpenter's son ?
Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James,
and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? and his sisters, are they
not all with us?" In Matt, xxvii. 56, and Mark xv. 40,
" Mary the mother of James and Joses" is mentioned. And
in Galat. i. 19, S. Paul says, "Other of the Apostles saw I
none, save James, the Lord's brother." SS. Simon and
Jude were likewise of the number of the Apostles, and
Joses, Justus, Joseph, or Barsabas, were elected, after the
death of Judas, to the Apostleship with Matthias (Acts i. 23).
The vagueness, however, in which the exact relationship
between our Lord and the rest of the Holy Family was left
in Scripture, and the discrepancies and hiatus which existed,
even in the Apocryphal Gospels, were not likely to survive
the passion for minute research and classification which
prevailed during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth cen-
turies ; and accordingly, it is to the great encyclopaedists of
those ages to whom we must turn to find that relationship
defined with the most minute accuracy. In the " Scholastic
History," a work which belongs to the latter part of the
twelfth century, James, Simon, Jude, and Justus surnamed
Barsabas axe the sons of Mary, the sister of the Blessed
Virgin by Alpheus the brother of Joseph, the foster-father
of our Lord. Joachim was married to Anna, and had issue
*
April 9.3 S. Mary. 127
the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, and then died.
Anna was next given in marriage by Joseph, her kinsman,
to his brother Cleopas, by whom she had a second daughter
Mary subsequently married to Alpheus. By him she
bore the so-called brethren of the Lord, James the Less,
Simon, Jude, and Justus, or Barsabas. After this, however,
Alpheus died, and Anna was married a third time, to Salom,
by whom she had a third daughter; Mary subsequently
married to Zebedee, by whom she had two sons James
the Great and the Evangelist S. John. 1 The Jews, as is
well known, applied the term "brethren" loosely to all
blood relations ; but James, Simon, Jude, and Justus had a
more especial claim to be called the brethren of our Lord,
in that they were descended, as is shown, not only from
Cleopas the brother of Joseph, but also from the wife of
Alpheus, the sister of the Virgin. And the same is ex-
pressed fully, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, by
Voragine, 2 Durandus, 3 and Vincent of Beauvais. 4
In a Missal of the Church of Utrecht, published in 1514,
after the Common of Saints, is a Mass in honour of SS.
Mary, the mother of S. James, and Salome, and in the
Collect both are termed sisters of S. Mary the Virgin and
* " Hist Scholast" Edit. 1473. Fol.clxiv. " De electione XII. Apostolorum,"
*'* Legend Aur.,'* cap. Jxvii. Edit. Graesse, 1830.
*"Rat. Div. Off." Edit 1470. Fol. 196 A. Lib. vii. " De sanctorum festivi-
tatibus."
*"Spec. Historiale." Edit. Benedict. 1624. Lib. viu cap. is. Four verses,
attributed to S. Jerome, are appended, and appear to be the foundation of th
following, in the " Golden Legend,** cap. cxxxi. :
"Anna solet dici tres concepisse Marias,
Quas genuere viri Joachim, Cleopas Salomeque,
Quas duxere viri Joseph, Alpheus, Zebedaeus,
Prima parit Christum, Jacobum secunda minorem,
Et Joseph Justum peperit cum Symone Judam,
Tertia majorem Jacobum volucremque Johannem."
*
128 Lives of the Saints.
aunts of Christ. To this is subjoined a discussion by John
Bertand of Perigord on the kindred of S. John Baptist and
the nephews and nieces of S. Anne. In this it is stated
that Emerentia, and her husband Stolanus or Gazirus, were
the parents of Esmeria, mother of Elizabeth, who was the
mother of the Baptist ; the second daughter of Emerentia
and Stolanus was S. Anne, the mother of the B. Virgin by
her first husband Joachim ; and of Mary the wife of Cleopas
and mother of S. James by her second husband Alpheus ;
and of Salome married to Zebedee by her third husband
Salomon. This may be very ingenious, but it is altogether
fanciful. .According to the apocryphal Acts of the three
Marys, on the death of their husbands, Mary the mother of
James, and Mary Salome went to the house of Mary the
mother of Jesus, and dwelt with her ; and were with her
when Joseph died and when Christ was crucified. They
were with her at the Resurrection, and tarried wtth her till
she died. On the news reaching them of S. John the
Evangelist, son of Salome, having been immersed in boiling
oil at the Latin gate of Rome, Mary the widow of Cleopas,
and Mary Salome, widow of Zebedee, went to Rome, and
were received by S. Clement the pope; they then retired to
Veroli near Fronsinone, and there died Mary the mother of
James, on the 25th May, and Mary Salome on the 22nd
October. Here by revelation, "to a certain boy of Veroli,"
was found the body of S. Mary the wife of Cleopas, in 1209,
and in the Roman Martyrology, May 25th, is observed as
the feast of the translation of these relics. This discovery
is related as follows. "A certain boy having dreamed
that the body of S. Mary was in a dry rocky spot, the abbot
of Casamare and his monks went to the place and opened a
stone cell, in which was the body. On the stone cover was
inscribed " Mary, the mother of S. John the Apostle and
James lies here/' and a parchment document was wrapped
*
*-
April 9 .3 S. Mary. 129
up with the bones, wrapper and parchment and bones all
perfectly sound. 1
The Apocryphal Acts tells the story somewhat differently.
Jn them S. James appears to the bishop of VerolL
However, the Camargues at the mouth of the Rhone
claim S. Mary the wife of Cleopas, and S. Mary Salome,
and S. Mary Magdalene ; and the town of Les Saintes
Maries, and the Gulf of the Saintes Maries take their names
from them, as does also the little village of Les Sansouires
(Saintes Soeurs) in the same district. How the relics were
brought there is differently related. According to the afore-
mentioned legendary Acts, they were carried away from
Veroli in 1220, by a knight, Lord of the Carmargues, who
assisted the duke of Veroli against the Saracens, and re-
ceived the sacred bodies as his reward. But, according
to the received tradition in Provence, S. Mary the wife of
Cleopas and Salome never were at Veroli, but came to
Aries with S. Martha and S. Mary Magdalene, and a servant
named Sarah. The bodies of the Marys and Sarah were
placed in a new shrine by order of Robert, king of Sicily, in
1423, and were found linked together, with interlaced arms,
as loving in death as in life/ Another examination of the
bodies was made, in 1448, before king Re'ne' of Anjou
and the Papal Legate; again, in 1627, before Cardinal
Richelieu, and in 1640, before the archbishop of Aries, and
1 There can be little doubt as to the origin of these relics. The following passage
from Guibert of Nogent, De Pignor. SS. Ed. d'Achery, p. 336, a writer early in the
lath cent, will afford the key: "Quid de capite Joannis ago qui de innumeris
sanctorum corporibus itidem indies audio? Plane decessor meus Ambianensis
(Amiens) episcopus cum corpus Firmini martyris ut putabat, quatenus de theca in
thecam efferet, nullum inibi pitacium, ne unius quidem literae testimonium, qnis
ibidem jaceret, invenit. Ab Atrebatensi et ipso Ambianensi Episcopi audivi quod
refero. Qua de re urbis episcopus plumbeae laminae mox inscripsit, quod illic
conderetur : Finntnus Martyr Amblanontm Episcopus. Nee mora in monasterio
Sancti Dionysii idem actitatur. Parata ab abbate ornatiori ipsa dum inde
extollitur, dum cum membris caput evolvitur, membranula in martyris naribus
reperitur, in qua quod esset Firminus Ambianensis martyr exponitur."
VOL. TV. Q
* -
130 L,wes of the Saints. [A P rii 9 .
the heads and bodies were found entire. But another claim .
to possess the bodies is made by the city of Ciudad Rodrigo.
In the additions to the chronicle of Braullo and Hellecas, it
is said that S. James came to Spain with Mary the wife of
Cleopas, and Salome his mother, and Mary Magdalene,
and that the Magdalene and Mary the wife of Cleopas died
at Ciudad Rodrigo; but that Mary Salome, after having
gone on with S. James to visit Germany, England, and Italy,
died at Veroli. These additions are a forgery of the i7th
century. The head of Mary the wife of Cleopas is also
venerated in the Servite church at Venice ; this was proba-
bly brought from Constantinople, where the body of S.
Mary the wife of Cleopas was venerated in the Church of S.
James in the 6th century.
S. PROCHORUS, M.B. OF NICOMEDIA.
(1ST CENT.)
[By the Greeks with Timon, Nicanor, and Parmenas, on July 28th. Ir
the Roman Martyrology S. Philip is on June 6th, S. Nicanor on Jan. loth
S. Parmenas on Jan. 23rd, S. Prochorus on April pth, and S. Timon
on April igth. On this day also Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Maurolycus, &c.]
S. PROCHORUS was one of the first seven deacons, men-
tioned in the Acts of the Apostles, with S. Stephen and S.
Philip, and also with Nicolas, who is said to have originated
the heresy of the Nicolaitans, condemned by S. John. S.
Prochorus became bishop of Nicomedia, and died a martyr
at Antioch. See the life of S. Eupsychius, Sept. 7.
S. EUPSYCHIUS, M.
(A.D. 362.)
[Modern Roman Martyrology. Greek Mensea and Menology of the
Emperor Basil the Younger. Authority : Sozomen, Hist. Eccles., lib.
v. c. 4.]
THIS saint was one of the sufferers under the apostate
*
April 9 .] 5! Waltrudis.
131
emperor Julian, at Csesarea, the capital of Cappadocia,
where the Christians had closed all the temples and de-
stroyed that of Fortune. Sozomen says that the emperor
had long regarded the inhabitants of Csesarea with extreme
aversion, because they were so zealously attached to Chris-
tianity. Eupsychius was a native of Csesarea, and had just
taken to himself a wife, when he was apprehended and
executed. Spzomen says, " I believe that Eupsychius was
condemned in consequence of the demolition of the temple
of Fortune, which excited the anger of the emperor against
all the inhabitants of Csesarea. Indeed, all the actors in
this transaction were condemned, some to death, and others
to banishment"
S. Gregory Nazianzen mentions a Church dedicated to
him (Ep. 26), and S. Basil the Great (Ep. 291) invited the
bishops of Pontus to celebrate his feast
S. WALTRUDIS, AESS.
(END OF ' ;TH CENT.)
[S. Waltrudis, Waldetrude, Vantrude, and W&ndru, as she is vari-
ously called, is venerated on this day at Mons, as a double with octave,
and there her elevation is commemorated on Feb. 3rd, the separation of
the head from her body on Aug. I2th, her canonization on Nov. and.
When canonized is uncertain, S. Bernard was allowed by Alexander III. to
erect an altar in her honour. Her name has been admitted into the modern
Roman Martyrology. Authority : A life by a contemporary, from the
testimony of eye-witnesses. 1 ]
S. WALTRUDIS, patroness of Mons, the capital of
Hainault, belonged to a family of saints. Her husband was
S. Vincent, founder of Soignies ; her sister was S. Aldegund,
foundress of Maubeuge ; her sons were S. Landric and S.
Dentlin; her daughters S. Aldetrudis and S. Madelberta.
She was the daughter of count Walbert and the princess
Bertilla. She founded a house of canonesses at Mons.
1 This life has, however, undergone considerable interpolation.
132 Lives of the Saints.
Aprn 10.
SS. ROMAN MARTYRS, baptized by S. Alexander, A.D. 116.
SS. TERENTIUS, AFRICANUS AND COMPANIONS, MM. in Africa, circ.
A.D. 250.
S. PALLADJUS, B. of 4uerre t A.D. 6^4.
S. BEDE THE YOUNGER, Monk at Gavello, A.D. 883.
S. MACARIUS of Antioch) at Ghent, A.D. 1012.
S. FULBERT, 5. of Chartres, A.D. 1028.
S. BEDE THE YOUNGER, MK.
(A.D. 883.)
[Venerated in the diocese of Genoa. Authority : A life written by a
monk of Gavello, about the Year 1350.]
|HARLEMAGNE, in order to improve the con-
dition of the Church in his dominions, estab-
lished schools in which he placed youths
under excellent masters, to be trained for the
priesthood. Among these was Bede, a boy from Sleswik,
who by his proficiency in his studies, and by his virtues,
became a favourite with the great emperor and his nobles.
He was offered a bishopric, but refused it, and retired into
the monastery of Gavello, between the rivers Pantaro and
the Po, with a friend named Venerius. A white dove was
wont to hover at his window, and when admitted, to nutter
about him in his cell. "Drive the bird away," said
Venerius, "lest the bird spoil our books." " Nay, leave it
alone," said Bede, "God hath sent the bird to give us
pleasure."
Bede died at Gavello, and was there buried. But his
body was translated to S. Benignus at Genoa, in 1233. By
a curious blunder, this Bede is confounded with the Vene-
rable Bede of Jarrow, who died 735. Papebroech, who
Apni io.] S. Macarius of Antiock. 133
was at S. Benigno in 1662, says, "I was courteously received,
and venerated there this sacred body, but the credulity of
the monks displeased me, for they asserted that it was the
body of the Venerable Bede, the ecclesiastical writer."
The writer of the life in the i4th century made a similar
mistake, for he headed it the life of S. Bede, Priest, Con-
fessor, and Doctor, and calls him "The Venerable,"
though there is nothing in his life which could possibly give
colour to this mistake.
S. MACARIUS OF ANT10CH, B.
(A.D. 1012.)
[Roman Martyrology. Belgian Martyrology. Molanus in his additions
to Usuardus. Raderius in his Bavaria Sancta. Authority: A life
written by a monk of S. Bavo after the death of Macarius in 1014, by
order of the abbot, Erembold, who died in 1017, and who had been abbot
during the residence of S. Macarius at Ghent. Another life, written by a
monk of Ghent, in 1073, by order of the abbot Siger. This life gives a
long account of his acts before he came' into Europe, which is more than
questionable. The earlier life gives nothing but what took place after his
Hrrival at Ghent, and as his reason, says, "Cujus quidera peregrinationis
seriem explicare non est facile memoratu : quoniam fama incertae
opinionis prsestantior est veritas." The narrative given by the second
writer must have been gathered from what Macarius had told of his earlier
days, and had been handed down through more than fifty years. This, as
may well be conjectured, is not worth much.]
IN ion, there arrived in Ghent an Armenian ecclesiastic,
Macarius by name, who called himself archbishop of An-
tiocli. Those were not critical days, and Erembold, the
good abbot of S. Bavo, who received him, made no en-
quiries as to what Antioch he came from \ whether that in
Syria, or that in Pisidia. The first life, written by order of
Erembold, the abbot^ says, " Antioch in Armenia/' but as
there is no Antioch in Armenia, we shall probably be right
in supposing that he was an Armenian by birth who lived at
* *
134 Lives of the Saints.
Antioch, probably that in Pisidia. The patriarch of Antioch
in Syria, between 977 and 989 was Agapius II., who was
ejected in 989, but returned to Antioch in 996, 1 and he was
succeeded by John III., Nicolas II, Elias II., Theodore III.,
Basil II. The second life boldly asserts that he was patriarch
of Antioch in Syria, and was brought up by his namesake,
Macarius, patriarch of the same see, 2 during whose patri-
archate he was born. There was no Antiochian patriarch of
this name except Macarius the heretic, who was deposed in
68 1 ; and therefore we may safely consign this assertion to
the realm of fable. The second writer relates that Macarius
was elected to fill the place of his kinsman. He resigned
the cares of his see shortly after into the hands of a certain
Eleutherius " of venerable memory," says the writer, though
he is perfectly unknown to history, and visited the Holy
Land as a pilgrim, and he was received at Jerusalem by the
holy patriarch John. 3 There he was subjected to imprison-
ment and torture by the Saracens, and escaping he came
into Europe, passed through Bavaria and Cologne, and
settled in the monastery of S. Bavo, at Ghent, where he
spent the remaining months of his life. His journey had
been marked by prodigies. At Cologne he healed a man
of king's evil, but on the other hand at Maubeuge, where he
had caused himself to be bled, a servant, "at the instigation
of the devil/' having thrown away the blood from his vein,
was struck with leprosy. 4 But enough of the second life
1 Elmacin. ed. Th. Erpen. pp. 344, 252.
* What the writer means by calling a man who is utterly unknown, if he ever
existed, "that strong column of the realm, and bulwark of the whole Church," it
is hard to say. On the strength of these Acts, Le Quien ventures, with hesitation,
to insert one of these Macarii, not both, as bishop of Antioch in Pisidia, but there
is not a shadow of other evidence to support the insertion.
8 John VI. was patriarch in 969, in which year he was burnt by the Saracens.
This makes 42 years elapse between the visit of Macarius to Jerusalem, and his
arrival at Ghent.
* This story is a fair specimen of the second life. " Propter longam itineris iati-
Ifj - = -
,S. Macarius of Antioch. 135
of Macarius. It is a worthless composition from beginning
to end. The first is very different It relates that he was
unable to leave Ghent owing to the swelling of his feet though
he greatly desired to return into his own land, and when,
shortly after, the plague raged in Ghent, the aged Oriental
was stricken with it and died, after having had his beard
shaved, and having requested the abbot to send a portion to
his mother at Antioch. The old Eastern rests at Ghent, in
the cathedral church of S. Bavo, but portions of his relics
have been distributed to Thielt, G&ardmont, Lille, and
Laerne.
gationem placuit sibl quatenus sanguinis minutione recreatur quern hospes cum
vascule cxcipiens apud se reposuit; et meritum viri praeponderans, uni ex
servientibus sibi, ut sumtna solicitudine tuto loco ne effunderetur servaret, mag-
nopere commendare curavit. Sed quia aliquando servorum natura, nihil est
deterius j servus idem, ut omnium nequissimus, tarn invidia quam et diaboli
instinctu deceptus, ilium sacrum cruorcm in latrinam projecit . . . sed scrutanp
corda et renes Deus hunc leprae morbo percussit."
Portion of a Monatranoe.
136 Lives of the Saints.
April 11.
S. ANTIFAS, Af.B. of Pergamos, A.D. 92.
SS. DOUNIUB, jS.^"., ANASTASIUS, MAURUS, AND COMP., MM. in
Dalmatia t ist cent.
S. LEO THE GREAT, Pope of Rome, A.D. 461.
S. BARSANUPH, H. at Gaza, beginning qf 6th cent.
S. ISAAC, Jib. at Spoleto, circ. A.D. $$o.
S. G.ODEBERTHA, /^. at Noyon, in France, A.D. 670.
S. GUTHLAC, P.H. at Cropland, A.D. 714.
SS. STEPHEN, Ab., AND HILDEBRAND, MM. at S. Gilles, in Languedoc,
A.D. 1209.
S. ANTIPAS, B. OF PERGAMOS, M.
(A.D. 92.)
[Greek Menology of the Emperor Basil. His office was composed by
S. Joseph the Hymnographer. Inserted in the Roman Martyrology by
Baronius. Authority : Rev. ii. 13, and a long posterior account of the
martyrdom from tradition by a priest of Pergamos.]
|NTIPAS is he of whom Christ spake to the
angel or bishop of fergamos, "Thou holdest
fast my name, and hast not denied my faith,
even in those days wherein Antipas was my
faithful martyr, who was slain among you/ 7
The traditional account is that he was inclosed in a
brazen bull, over a fire, and scorched and suffocated to
death therein. Perillus, the inventor of this horrible mode
of execution, was constrained by Phalaris, tyrant of Agri-
gentum, to suffer by it
April n.1 S. Leo the Great. 137
S. LEO THE GREAT, POPE.
(A.D. 461.)
[The name of S. Leo was inscribed in the Greek diptychs, in 536, at the
Council of Constantinople, under the Patriarch Mennas; but by the
Greeks, S. Leo is venerated on Feb. i8th. On the nth of April, Bede,
Usuardus, Hrabanus, Notker, and Roman Martyrology. Authorities :
His own letters, and the acts of the Council of Chalcedon. 1 }
POPE SIXTUS III. died in 449, and all Rome looked as
one man to the pious and energetic Leo, archdeacon of
Rome, to fill the vacant chair. Leo was then absent on a
mission significant of his powers, that of reconciling two
generals, Aetius and Albinus, whose feud might be danger-
ous to the West Without any show of diffidence, but
without any egoistical self-confidence, knowing "that He
who imposed the burden would give His aid for the
administration," 3 Leo the Great, as he has been worthily
styled, took possession of the see of S. Peter.
His first conflict was with the Pelagians. Pelagius, 8 a
British monk at Rome, and a friend of S. Paulinus of Nola,
had written a treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity.
Strict and earnest in practical religion, he heard with indig-
nation the feeble self-excusing to which indolent Christians
had recourse. His feeling was, "You deceive yourselves
by talking thus about your weakness. You can serve God,
if you have the will." A bishop one day quoted to him
Augustine's prayer, " Give what Thou commandest, and
then command what thou wilt"* Pelagius could not endure
such language. It seemed to him to cut at the root of all
personal exertion, all exercise of free-will, and to encourage
listlessness under the garb of piety. He seemed to foresee
the terrible heresy which in after ages Calvin was to
1 Port-ions of this life are taken from Canon Brighfs "Church History."
* Sermon 2. * Pelagius is the Latin form of his supposed Keltic name Morgan
* Confess, x. 40.
* *
138 Lives of the Saints.
develope out of the Catholic doctrine of Grace, and the
more subtle but equally dangerous heresy of Jansen, and to
strive to assert an opposite dogma which would make such
, heresies impossible. Thus, about 405, he was led on by
an intellectual tendency to exaggeration and one-sidedness,
into a view of human capabilities which left no place for
supernatural help. His view was, in few words, "We need
no inward grace, for we have no inborn sin."
Whilst S. Augustine was absorbed by the business of the
Conference at Carthage with the Donatists, already re-
corded (p. 90) ; he once or twice met Pelagius there. 1
Something he had heard in casual conversation, of a theory
which supposed the Church to baptize infants, "not for
remission of sin, but for their sanctincation in Christ " 2 He
was startled, but thought little more about it; there was
then no opportunity for pursuing the subject, the speakers
were of no weight, and the matter was soon forgotten.
Pelagius departed to Palestine ; but he left behind his friend
and fellow thinker, the Irishman Coelestius, whose efforts
to spread the peculiar tenets of Pelagius drew attention to
him. He was summoned before the Council at Carthage,
and then it became manifest that his teaching and that of
Pelagius was reducible to two principles the denial of
Supernatural Grace, and the denial of Original Sin. S.
Augustine's bitter remembrances of Manichseism would make
him specially abhorrent of a theory which lessened men's
dread of sin, fostered a heathenish self-reliance, and nullified
the mystery of the new Creation. He felt the greatness of
the crisis ; he saw that as by former heresies which affected
religion on the side that looked to God, so by this which was
conversant with its aspect towards man, a blow was struck at
the very essence of Apostolic Christianity; and he attacked
the new doctrine both in sermons and in treatises.
i De Gest. PelagU, 46. * De Pecc. Orig. iii. xa.
April nj 6*. Leo the Great. 139
In Palestine, Pelagius was called before a conference at
Jerusalem, and then before a Council at Diospolis, in
which he equivocated. But in the mean time his denials of
grace and original sin were perverting many. In 416, a
council of sixty-seven bishops at Carthage condemned the
chief Pelagian errors, and wrote to pope Innocent on the
subject The heretics, they urged, were leaving no place
for the grace of God, "If we, in giving benediction, say
over our people, ' Grant them, O Lord, to be strengthened
with might by Thy Spirit/ they pretend that we deny free-
will." Soon after, a Numidian Council met at Milevis,
and similarly addressed the pope. Innocent wrote in
reply, denouncing the Pelagians ; " Lo, this is the man that
took not God for his help !" was his apposite quotation, in
speaking of the author of the heresy. The true doctrine he
stated very exactly, and excommunicated Pelagius and
Coelestius.
He died March i2th, 417. In the reign of Zosimus,
who succeeded Innocent, Coelestius came to Rome, and a
council was held to examine his doctrine; and the pope,
misled by his sophistries, pronounced excommunications
against the accusers of Pelagius. Soon after, Zosimus
received a letter from Praylius, patriarch of Jerusalem, in
favour of Pelagius, and a confession of faith from Pelagius
himself, addressed to Innocent The success of this docu-
ment is astonishing. Zosimus and other " holy men who
were present," when it was read, agreed in thinking it alto-
gether satisfactory. Some could hardly restrain their tears
at the thought of Pelagius and Coelestius being defamed,
when they were, in fact, so orthodox. The pope, on Sept
22nd, 417, struck a heavy blow at the moral influence of
Rome, by writing to the African bishops in vindication of
Pelagius and Coelestius. What Innocent had condemned
as heretical, Zosimus declared to be orthodox The Church
140 Lives of the Saints. [April .
of Africa assembled in astonishment and dismay; two
hundred and fourteen bishops met in council, and in a
letter formally addressed to the pope, said, " We ordain that
the sentence issued by the venerable bishop Innocent from
the see of the most blessed Apostle Peter against Peiagius
and Coelestius shall stand firm."
On April 3oth, the men whom Zosimus had pronounced
innocent were excluded from Rome, as authors of impiety,
by a rescript of the emperor Honorius. Next day, May
ist, 418, a great council of the African Church was held
at Carthage, anathematizing those holding the Pelagian
heresy, and condemning the propositions in order.
Zosimus became aware that he had committed a great
mistake. Before the acts of the " Plenary Council " of Africa
reached home, he began to see how strong was the orthodox
feeling at Rome against the men whom he had hastily
acquitted. The imperial rescript was also a fact of great
significance. He summoned Coelestius to appear again
before him, but Coelestius dared not do so, on account of
the sentence of the emperor. Thereupon the pope, in a
long epistle, called Tractoria, condemned Peiagius and
Coelestius, assigning to them, in case they recanted, the
position of penitents. This letter was circulated throughout
Christendom, and accepted by the bishops of the East and
West In Italy it was rejected by nineteen prelates, the
chief of whom was Julian, bishop of Eclona, in Campania.
The Venerable Bede calls him, "a very accomplished
rhetorician, and the keenest assailant of the grace of God,
after Peiagius/' Peiagius disappears from history after 418,
and his room is filled by Julian, who aimed at a semi-
Pelagianism, a modification of the doctrine of the heresi-
arch. Julian was the son of Memor, a bishop for whom
S. Augustine entertained the warmest friendship. 1 He was
1 August, de Pecc. Orig. ; in Julian, U c. 14.
*-
April no .S 1 . Leo the Great. 141
early admitted into the lower order of the Clergy, and
married a maiden of the ^niilian family, daughter of the
bishop of Beneventum. The Epithalamium of Julian and
la was written by S. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in which he
urges them to dedicate their children, should they have
any, as a sacerdotal family, to virginity. Julian and his
friends were deposed by Zosimus, but they appealed to a
General Council. Zosimus died, and was succeeded by
Boniface I., who reigned only four years ; and then the
papal throne was filled by S. Ccelestine I. In the East, the
great Nestorian heresy was spreading and being combated,
and had been condemned in the great Council of Ephesus.
Sixtus III. had succeeded Ccelestine. Whilst Nestorianism
had blazed forth in the East, Pelagianism had smouldered
in the West One of the last acts of Sixtus III. was
prompted by his archdeacon Leo. Julian, worn with
suffering and disappointment, sought to be reconciled to
the Church. Leo, perhaps harshly, and with the precipi-
tate judgment of youth, declared that his professions of
sound belief were insincere, and Sixtus, guided by Leo,
refused to accept the convert, who died as a schoolmaster
in Sicily. His epitaph, the work of some loving hand,
could still be read in the ninth century: "Hie in pace
quiescit Julianus Episcopus Catholicus."
Now that Sixtus was no more, and Leo was in his seat,
he was called upon to quench the last embers of Pelagian-
ism. He wrote to the bishop of Aquileia, exhorting him to
receive none without unequivocal abjuration, and a clear
admission of real grace. At the same time he showed his
zeal against that heresy which Pelagians were wont to
associate with the Church.
The Manichsean community at Rome had been reinforced
by fugitives from Africa, then groaning under the Vandal
invasion. They endeavoured to mingle with Churchmen in
*
142 Lives of the Saints.
public worship ; but the eye of Leo was upon them. He
found out who the men were who declined to receive the
Eucharistic chalice, fasted on Sunday and Monday in
honour of the sun and moon, and led some of the faithful,
as they ascended the steps of S. Peter's, to turn round at
the topmost steps, and salute the rising sun. He instituted
a search for Manichseans, and detected many, including
their bishop ; and assembling a number of bishops, priests,
and distinguished laymen, he compelled the captured heretics
to confess the infamies which made part of their secret
ritual. 1 Some gave token of genuine repentance; with
regard to the rest, Leo employed his great powers of terse
and vigorous preaching in order to guard his flock from the
pollution of their company. In the Ember-week of Decem-
ber, 443, and on the Epiphany of 444, he denounced
Manichseism with the energy of one to whom the faith of
Christ and the Gospel law of holiness were supremely dear.
The profanity of the Pagans, the blindness of carnal
Judaism, the dark secrets of magic, had been poured into
one receptacle of foulness. Manichseans, he urged, 2 re-
garded the idea of Incarnation as a debasement of the
Deity. They imagined a Christ with a phantom body,
which could not really die nor revive; and they denied that
Christ would come as a Judge. They cast off the Old
Testament, they corrupted the New, they circulated false
Scriptures under sacred names, they strove to ensnare the
simple by pretended austerity, by a display of mean dresses
and pallid faces, and by acts which were in truth impure. 8
But he did not conclude without an expression of deep pity
for those who had fallen into this Antichristian heresy, yet
for whom, as long as life remained, there remained a place
of repentance. Some of the Manichseans fled from Rome,
1 Sermon 16 . * Sermon 34.
s Sermon 41. The Manichaeans were the origin of the Albigenses, set vol. i. 140
vol. iii. 56.
* -
April .] S. Leo the Great. 143
and Leo wrote against them to all the bishops of Italy, Jan.
3oth, 444-
S. Hilary of Aries, (May 5th,) was revered for his devotion,
his extraordinary energy as a preacher, his unwearied zeal
in converting pagans and heretics ; he was beloved for his
humility and sympathy, his active compassion for the poor,
his readiness to ransom captives even with the vessels of
the altar, and the apostolic tenderness with which he ad-
ministered Church discipline. There was a holy intensity
about his character which made him the chief power in the
Transalpine Church. Such was the prelate who, while
visiting S. Germain at Auxerre, received a complaint against
a bishop named Celidonius. " He ought not to have been
consecrated \ while a layman and a magistrate, he married a
widow, and he inflicted capital punishment" It was con-
tended, in fact, that he was canonically irregular. A certain
degree of morbid formalism had taken hold of the ecclesi-
astical mind on both these points, and a council of bishops,
called together to hear the case, did but carry out the
existing law in its literal rigour, by adjudging Celidonius to
resign his see of Besangon. Celidonius appealed to Rome,
apparently in the autumn of 444 ; and Leo received him
without further questioning to communion, which was re-
garded as tantamount to sanctioning his claim. Hilary
heard of this in the depth of winter. It was characteristic
of him to do " with his might," at once and thoroughly,
whatever seemed his duty in any matter. Regardless o
the bitter weather, he crossed the Alps on foot, and arrived
at Rome. His first act was to visit the tombs of the
apostles ; that pious office discharged, he presented himsel
before S. Leo, and respectfully begged him to consider in a
friendly and extra-judicial way the statement he had to
make; and he obstinately refused to plead as before a court,
but declared his readiness to give information as to facts
* *
-*
144 Lives of the Saints. cA P m XI .
unknown at Rome. 1 A council was assembled, in which
Hilary had a seat He was urged, apparently, to make a
formal accusation of Celidonius, or to communicate with
him. He refused, asserting his rights as a Gallican arch-
bishop in language which, as the prefect Auxiliaris expressed
it, did not suit " the delicate ears of the Romans," and to
which the pope affirmed, "no bishop could bear to listen/'
Indeed, there is every reason to believe that S. Hilary on this
occasion, in his eagerness to maintain his independence, for-
got what was due to the successor of S. Peter, and behaved
throughout with unwarrantable violence and disrespect.
Finding that he had caused offence, and fancying that he
would be made to suffer for it, he withdrew from the council,
evaded the guards which had been placed over him, and
returned without further delay to Gaul. Leo, justly irritated
and disposed to take an unfriendly view of all his conduct,
regarded the proceeding as a " disgraceful flight. 2 ' 7
S. Leo now gave audience to another complaint S.
Hilary had suddenly arrived at a city, the name of which
is unknown, but which was not in the province of
Viennensis, then subject to the see of Aries. Projectus,
the bishop of this city, was dangerously ill; and Hilary
appears to have thought that it was necessary to make,
immediate provision for the see. He consecrated another
bishop to succeed Projectus, who recovered, and laid his
grievance before S. Leo. We do not know the circumstances
as they presented themselves to S. Hilary, but his conduct
seems inexcusable. Leo rightly declared the act of Hilary
null He also wrote a letter 3 to the bishops of Viennensis,
denouncing the pride and stubborness of Hilary, who would
not "endure to be subject to S. Peter." He gave them an
account of the cases of Celidonius and Projectus, and was so
far carried away by hasty injustice as to say that Hilary was
1 Life of S. Hilary, by S. Honoratus, c. 8. * Ep. 10. Ep. 10.
-*
*-
j , Leo the Great. 145
" not so much bent on consecrating a bishop as on causing
the death of Projectus, and by a wrongful ordination
deceiving the man whom he intruded into the see." Such
a passage may enable us to judge of other charges against
Hilary, endorsed by Leo in this vehement epistle. The
ready support given to S. Hilary in his visitation by the
highest civil functionaries, his vigour as a disciplinarian, his
rapid movements throughout his province, were represented
to Leo in a light sufficiently odious, and probably too
strongly coloured. The pope had been highly provoked by
Hilary's boldness, and by his precipitate and, as far as we
can judge, unjustifiable act, in ordaining a man to a see not
yet vacant, and he now declared him to be excluded from
communion with Rome. The powers of the see of Aries
over Viennensis, which Zosimus had strongly maintained,
were annulled by S. Leo, who suggested that an aged bishop
named Leontius should enjoy a certain kind of primacy in
Gaul. This was followed and fortified by an imperial
rescript On June 8th, 445, Valentinian III. put forth a
mandate for the substance at least of which S. Leo must be
held responsible. 1 " A holy synod," the emperor is made
to say, " has ordained that no one shall presume to attempt
anything without the authority of that see, which derives its
primacy from the merit of S. Peter, and from the dignity
of the city of Rome. For then will the peace of the
Churches be everywhere preserved, if they all acknowledge
their ruler." Hilary's offices are then recited ; that he still
retains the title of bishop, is ascribed to Leo's grace alone.
The Papal sentence against him "would of itself have been
valid, for what could be unlawful to the authority of so
great a pontiff?" But to prevent such disobedience for the
future, the emperor decreed that no bishop of GauJ, or in
other provinces should be at liberty, " contrary to the old
1 Ep. ii., Valent. Aetio.
VOL. IV. 10
146 Lives of the Saints.
usage," to dispense with "the authority of the venerable
Pope of the eternal City." All were to hold his ordinances
for law ; and a bishop, cited to his tribunal, and neglecting
the summons, should be compelled by the provincial
government to obey. S. Hilary, doing his best, in vain, to
conciliate S. Leo, sought comfort in his devotions and his
pastoral work, and died in the odour of sanctity.
A few days after this rescript, S. Leo wrote to the new
patriarch of Alexandria, assuming that the Church of S. Mark
must have learned her ritual customs from that of S. Peter,
and requiring that on great festivals, when the worshippers
were too numerous for the capacities of any single church,
the celebration should be several times repeated, so that
different companies might have in turn an opportunity of
offering sacrifice. 1 This was the Roman custom; but it
does not seem to have made its way into Egypt
The Priscillianist heresy had revived in Spain. Priscillian,
a well-born and eloquent Spaniard had adopted a strange
compound of various errors originally brought into Spain
from Egypt. He regarded God the Son as an influence in
power only ; was a fatalist, believed in the pre-existence of
souls, and the detention of souls in bodies as a punishment
for sins committed in a former state of existence. He denied
the resurrection of the body; regarded the body as a work
of the devil, and condemned marriage. His doctrine was,
in fact, a sort of Manichseism, regarding all matter as evil.
Priscillian himself was a man of pure and strict life,
capable of long fasts and vigils, careless about wealth, and
fascinating in address. On October 4th, 380, his heresy
was condemned in the Council of Saragossa. After this
council Priscillian appealed to the emperor Maximus. At
the court of Treves the accused and accusers found S.
Martin of Tours with the emperor, who revered him as a
1 Ep, 9.
_ *
S 1 . Leo the Great. 147
saint. S. Martin rebuked Ithaicus, a bishop, who is de-
scribed as having "nothing of holiness" about him, 1 but
who hated Priscillian chiefly on account of his fasts. The
great bishop of Tours also begged Maximus to " spare the
unhappy men," and protested against "the hearing of a
Church cause by a secular judge." He even obtained
from Maximus a promise to shed no blood, and, relying on
this, quitted Treves. Torture wrung from Priscillian a
confession, probably false, of impure practices ; and on this
ground he, with six others, was beheaded. It was the first
infliction of death for heresy ; but in this case, for heresy
alleged to endanger public morals.
To return to S. Leo. Turibius, bishop of Astorga, con-
victed a great number of Priscillianists, and wrote an
account of the matter to S. Leo. The heretics, it appears,
circulated apocryphal acts of S. Thomas, S. John, S.
Andrew, and a memoir of the apostles which represented
Christ as denouncing the Old Testament. 2 S. Leo replied
on July 2ist, 446. 3 Alluding to Priscillian's execution, he
justified it on the express ground that his doctrine was not
merely heretical, but a social abomination. The Church,
he observed, was too gentle not to " shrink from a bloody
vengeance " on her enemies ; but when they attacked public
morality, and " subverted all laws divine and human, the
severity of Christian princes " was well-timed. He entered
into a detailed description of Priscillianism, and recom-
mended the Spanish bishops to hold a council against
" these impieties." S. Leo was next called on to interfere
in the East The exarchate of Ephesus was now held by
Bassian, who had been installed under circumstances of
some violence, but with the sanction of the emperor, and
had governed his Church four years, in full communion with
S. Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople, but S. Proclus was
1 Sulp. Sev. Hist. ii. 73. * Turib. Ep- <- * Ep. i$.
*
148 Lives of the Saints.
dead, and was succeeded by S. Flavian. During Lent some
troublesome rumours obliged the clergy of Bassian to write
to the emperor Theodosius on his behalf. The application
was successful; his peaceable possession of the see was
guaranteed. However, his adversaries contrived to per-
suade S. Flavian of Constantinople, and S. Leo of Rome,
that his elevation was irregular, and they pronounced against
him. Theodosius then deposed him. He was one day
in the very act of offering the Holy Sacrifice, when he was
suddenly dragged from the altar, beaten, pillaged, thrown into
prison, his priestly robes torn from him by force, and a priest
named Stephen was placed upon his throne. Bassian lay in
prison three months, and was released apparently in 448.
But a far more important case than that of Bassian now
called for the attention of S. Leo. The East was in a
ferment with Eutychianism. Our space will not allow of
relating a second time that memorable struggle, which has
been recorded with some fulness in the life of S. Flavian
(Feb. 1 8th), and the reader must turn to that life for an
account of the part S. Leo took in opposing the heresy of
Eutyches, up to the Robber Council of Ephesus, in 449.
We resume the thread of history from that point
It was S. Leo's custom to hold an annual synod on Sept
29th. 1 This assembly was sitting when Hilarus arrived,
whom Leo had sent as his legate to the Council of Ephesus.
He had eluded the pursuit of the Eutychians by choosing
the most unfrequented routes, 2 and he now described the
horrors which had taken place, except Flavian's death, of
which he was unaware. S. Leo wrote, on October i5th,
four synodal letters. The first was to Theodosius; 3 he
assured him that the Christian party would be ruined, unless
1 Ep. 16. 2 Ep. 46, Hilarus to Pulcheria.
* Ep. 43, 44. S. Leo was in the habit of making more than one draft of his letters.
as in this case.
April .] S. Leo the Great. 149
the decision of the late council was reversed. Flavian, he
said, had appealed to Rome; and in accordance with
" Nicene Canons," l such an appeal ought to be heard by a
General Council in Italy. To the princess Pulcheria he
declared that at Ephesus one furious man had carried his
point by force and terror. 2 He exhorted the Church of
Constantinople to own no other bishop than Flavian.
Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria, now ruled in the
East. He consecrated for Constantinople one Anatolius,
an Eutychian. Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, appealed for
help and advice to the first bishop of Christendom. In this
remarkable letter he traced the primacy 3 of Rome to her
civil greatness, her soundness of faith, and her possession of
the graves of SS. Peter and Paul He eulogized the exact
and comprehensive orthodoxy with which the Tome of
S. Leo conveyed the full mind of the Holy Spirit He
dilated on the wrongs he had undergone from Dioscorus,
and his exertions as a bishop, entreating Leo not to despise
his old age in its affliction, but to decide whether he ought
to submit to the recent sentence. " I await the judgment
of your apostolic throne."
It was probably in February of 450, that a festival of
S. Peter attracted to Rome the emperor Valentinian, with
his wife and mother. They attended the service at the
Vatican Basilica. A number of bishops were then visiting
the pope, and stood around him, when, from the steps of
the altar, he addressed the imperial personages, and be-
sought their intervention for the restoration of Flavian, and
for the assembling of a General Council in Italy. They
wrote to Constantinople accordingly; Valentinian magni-
fying the primacy of S. Leo, and ascribing to him a right
"to judge about faith and bishops."
1 An error, really Sardican Canons. * Ep. 45.
8 Theod. Ep. 1x3 ; the sand in the Leonine collection.
1 50 Lives of the Saints. [A pr u .
The answer of the emperor Theodosius II. was wholly
unpromising, 1 he assured his relatives that he adhered to his
hereditary faith, that the recent council had been righteous
and orthodox, and that Flavian had received his due.
Meantime S. Leo wrote again to the orthodox of Constan-
tinople, insisting on the deeply practical nature of the
controversy.*
The contest between Aries and Vienne had not been
closed by the pope's letter of 445. The bishop of Vienne
complained that Ravennius of Aries had invaded his
jurisdiction ; but nineteen suffragans of Aries requested Leo
to confirm their mother-church in her rightful primacy.
Leo replied on May sth, dividing Viennensis between the
two metropolitans of Vienne and Aries. He appears to
have felt that in S. Hilary's case he had been perhaps more
imperative than successful
Theodosius II. died on July 29th, having reigned forty-one
years. The sovereignty passed from the feeble and obstin-
ate brother to the sister, who might well have ruled alone,
but that a female reign was without a precedent Pulcheria
made the senator Marcian at once her husband and her
colleague. Eutychianism was now a losing cause. In a
solemn council, which was attended by the Roman legates,
Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople, subscribed the Tome
of S. Leo, and anathematized both Eutyches and Nestorius.
Rome and Constantinople were now again at peace. The
body of S. Flavian was brought to Constantinople, and buried
in the church of the Apostles ; and the bishops who, for
adhering to his cause, had been exiled by Theodosius, were
permitted to return home. Among these was Theodoret,
who, however, declined to leave the monastery where he had
dwelt since his expulsion from Cyrus. He appears to have
signified to S. Leo, through one of the legates, that he had
ip. 62 66. *Ep.jg.
S. LEO THE GREAT.
April n.
April n.] S. Leo the Great. 151
signed the Tome ; and Leo, some time afterwards, formally
recognized him as an orthodox bishop. S. Leo had formerly
requested that afiairs might remain in statu quo until the
meeting of a new council. But his demands now rose with
his hopes, and he boldly urged on Marcian, April 23rd, 1
that the question for discussion was not whether Eutyches
were "impious," or whether Dioscorus "had decided
perversely;" these points were already settled. The
council would simply have to determine the conditions on
which pardon should be granted to those whom Dioscorus
had scared into wrong-doing. This, however, was not
Marcian's view. He would neither allow the council to
meet in Italy, nor exclude the doctrinal question from its
province. He issued a summons to the greater prelates, on
May i yth, 451, desiring them to attend on Sept ist, at
Nicsea, with as many of their suffragans as they chose to
bring; and expressly announced that the council would
have to enter thoroughly into an examination of the truth.
Disappointed as he must have been, both as to the place
and scope of the council, S. Leo was also vexed by the
promptitude of the summons. Before he received the
circular, he had asked Marcian to defer the synod until the
cessation of war with the Huns, in the West, should allow
the bishops to leave their sees.* The letter and the
circular crossed each other on their way ; Leo on finding
that Marcian had taken his own course, ascribed it to a
pious impetuosity, and acquiesced. 3 He had recently sent
to Constantinople, Lucentius, a bishop, and Basil, a priest
He now appointed these two, with Paschasinus, bishop of
Lilybseum, and a priest named Boniface, to preside in his
name at the synod. They were charged with a letter
announcing their commission, referring to the Tome, and
exhorting the assembled prelates to put down heretical
' Ep.8a.
152 Lives of the Saints'.
disputatiousness, and to maintain the authority of the
former Ephesian Council, and " the just excommunication of
Eutyches." 1 Nothing, in fact, more vividly displays the
theological greatness of S. Leo, than his impartial solici-
tude for both sides of the sacred truth. His Tome, so full
of this solicitude, had been already welcomed by Gallican
bishops; and he received, about August, from Eusebius,
archbishop of Milan, a synodal letter comparing it to the
statements of S. Augustine.
Five hundred and twenty bishops traditionally reckoned
as six hundred and thirty by including the proxies
assembled at Nicsea. It was there, probably, that Dio-
scorus of Alexandria took the daring step of excommuni-
cating S. Leo, and inducing ten bishops to sign the sentence.
After the bishops had awaited the emperor's coming for
some time, he desired them to proceed to Chalcedon, where
he could attend with more convenience, by simply crossing
the Bosphorus from Constantinople; and on the 8th of
October, they opened the synod in the stately church of
S. Euphemia at Chalcedon. As at the first Council of
Ephesus, so now, the presence of Christ was symbolized by
the Gospel-book in the midst of the assembly. The Roman
legates sat in the highest place ; next to them Anatolius of
Constantinople, then Dioscorus of Alexandria, Maximus of
Antioch, and Juvenal of Jerusalem. In front of the chancel-
screen sat nineteen high civil dignitaries, commissioned
to represent the emperor, and to exercise a general control.
The legates opened the proceedings hy standing forward
and demanding, in S. Leo's name, that Dioscorus should
not have a seat in the synod. This was so far granted, that
Dioscorus was obliged to take his seat apart in the midst.
Eusebius of Dorylseum then entreated, with passionate
eagerness, that the council would hear the records of the
'Ep.Sp. l Ep.9 3 .
April xi.j S. Leo the Great. 153
Latrocinium, or "Robber Council" of Ephesus. Dioscorus,
at first, joined in this desire; but suddenly changing his mind,
strove to obtain a discussion of doctrine. The reader came
to the imperial letter which had forbidden Theodoret of
Cyrus to appear at Ephesus. The commissioners then
ordered that he should enter the council, because they had
annulled his deposition and Marcian had willed his atten-
dance. The moment that he appeared, there arose the
vehement cries and counter-cries which disturbed so often
the order of this synod. The clamour of the adherents of
Dioscorus is at once intelligible ; and those over whom he
had tyrannized were agitated by their loss of self-respect, and
by their loathing of a heterodox persecutor.
" Pity us, the faith is ruined ! the canons expel him !
drive him out!" Such were the shouts of the Egyptian,
Illyrian, and Palestinian bishops; to which Dioscorus
added, that to admit Theodoret was to " cast out Cyril"
The bishops of the East, and Pontus, of Thrace and
"Asia," exclaimed, in words which showed a wounded
conscience, "We signed a blank paper under blows.
Drive out the Manichseans !" and then, alluding to
Flavian's death, "Drive out Dioscorus, the murderer !"
Theodoret stood calmly in the midst^ and desired that his
petition to Marcian might be examined. The commis-
sioners repeated that as he had the approbation of Rome
and Antioch, he was in a position to accuse, as well as to
be accused by, any other person present He sat down
beside Diosdorus and Eusebius, as one of the parties in the
cause. The reading of the acts of the Robber Council
was proceeded with. Stephen of Ephesus and others
described the outrages therein committed, and the violence
used to force the bishops to subscribe to the anathema
against S. Flavian. " Christians are not cowards," was the
bitter comment of the Egyptians } and Dioscorus had the
*
154 Lives of the Saints.
assurance to remark that no man ought to have signed a
blank letter. His opponents called attention to the sup-
pression of Leo's letter. " He swore seven times," said the
archdeacon of Constantinople, "that it should be read. It
was not read, and he is forsworn,"
Evidence was given as to the violence with which
Dioscorus had enforced Flavian's condemnation; cries of
"Anathema to Dioscorus" arose, together with "Many
years to Leo and Anatolius." The commissioners pro-
posed the deprivation of Dioscorus, Juvenal, Basil, and
three other bishops who had taken a prominent part in the
Latrocinium. Shouts of applause were mingled with the
solemn hymn of Trisagion, " Holy God, Holy and Mighty,
Holy and Immortal, have mercy upon us !" and with the
passionate denunciation, " Christ hath deposed Dioscorus
the homicide." But as yet there was no formal voting. The
commissioners desired the bishops to prepare individually
declarations of their faith, and signified the emperor's
adherence to the teaching of Nicgea and Constantinople.
So ended the first session ; the latter part of its business
had required the aid of lighted tapers. In the second, the
bishops declared that they would have no other creed than
that in existence, which had been illustrated by the doctors
from Athanasius to Leo. Two letters of S. Cyril were read,
and were finished amid loud applause; "Thus we all
believe ; Peter hath spoken by Leo ; Cyril and Leo have
taught alike. Why was not this read at Ephesus ? Why
did Dioscorus hide it?" Three days after, Dioscorus was
tried and deposed, first by the legates, and then then-
sentence was ratified by the council. On the i7th of
October, the doctrinal question was resumed. The Tome
of S. Leo was hailed by acclamation as in accordance with
the baptismal faith. Each bishop then made a personal
statement, accepting the Tome on the express ground of its
_ g
no -S. Leo the Great. 155
ascertained conformity to orthodox standards. The bishops
now expressed their wish to deal indulgently with the five
prelates whom the commissioners had proposed to include
in the sentence on Dioscorus. The court acceded to the
council's wishes as to the five, who re-entered and took
their seats amid a shout of welcome.
In the fifth session, Oct. 22nd, the magistrates desired to
hear what had been decided as to the faith. A "definition"
was read, and all but the papal legates and some Easterns
approved of it. But the legates and the magistrates objected
that the formula was not sufficiently precise. Nothing
short of an unequivocal confession that Christ had, ever
since the Incarnation, been true Man as well as true God,
would meet the emergency. Would the bishops, after all,
ignore the Tome of Leo ? " If so," said the resolute legates,
"let us return and have a synod held in Italy." Loud
murmurs arose; "Let the malcontents be off to Rome !"
But strength of will and clearness of perception carried the
day. The committee, which included the legates, retired
to revise the definition, and brought it back in a form
which secured the whole truth. It recited the Creed of
Nicsea and that of Constantinople, and then referred to the
recent errors, the denial of the title "Mother of God" to
S. Mary, and the confusion of the Natures in Christ, which
had obliged the council to vindicate the true sense of the
Creed. As a safeguard against Nestorius, the council
received the synodical letters of S. Cyril to Nestorius and
the Easterns; while it combined with these, as against
Eutyches, the Tome of S. Leo.
The council received the definition, thus perfected by
the well-timed persistency of the legates and the com-
missioners, with the acclamation, "This is the faith of the
fathers, the faith of the apostles ; we will follow it !" In
the next session, Oct. 25th, Marcian and Pulcheria visited
*
156 Lives of the Saints. [April .
the council, not to "exercise power," as he expressed it,
but "simply to confirm the faith." The sovereigns were
hailed as a Constantine and a Helena, and the Definition
was ratified anew. In the fifteenth session, October 3ist,
the archdeacon of Constantinople announced that his
Church had some business to bring forward, and requested
the papal legates to attend it. They declined, on the
ground that they had no instructions to do so. Thereupon
the commissioners directed the council to take up the
business; and then, after the legates had withdrawn, the
council enacted a canon which recited and confirmed the
third of Constantinople, and proceeded thus : " For to the
throne of Old Rome, because that was the imperial city, the
fathers with good reason gave privileges, and the hundred
and fifty bishops (/.<?., the Council of Constantinople in
381), acting with the same view, awarded the same privi-
leges to the most holy throne of New Rome (/.<?., Constanti-
nople) j judging with reason, that the city dignified by the
monarchy and senate, and enjoying equal privileges with
the old imperial Rome, should also in ecclesiastical matters
be honoured like her, holding the second place next to
her ; and so that the metropolitans of the Pontic, * Asiatic,'
and Thracian diocese, should be ordained by the said most
holy throne of the most holy Church of Constantinople."
This canon, although it professed to be a confirmation of
the canon of 381 was in fact a considerable advance
beyond it The canon of 381 gave only a pre-eminent
dignify to Constantinople, but this gave jurisdiction. This
usurpation, which had broken in upon the Nicene arrange-
ments, the council of 451 thought good to legalize, but
spoke, in so doing, as if it were no usurpation at all The
account of the Roman Church's position was naturally
borrowed from the canon of 381.
The next day, Nov. ist, Pascharinus, one of the Roman
*-
.] 6 1 . Leo the Great. 157
legates, complained in full council of the enactment of this
canon. The archdeacon of Constantinople gave his account
of the circumstances under which, " not in a corner, nor by
fraud," the business had been transacted. Lucentius,
another Roman legate, said that the bishops had been com-
pelled to sign. A cry arose, " No one was forced." He
complained that this was an interference with the Nicene
canon, "Let each party produce the canons," said the
commissioners. Pascharinus read the Sardican canon which
S. Zosimus and S. Leo had both by mistake attributed
to Nicsea, and quoted as such, he began "The Roman
Church has always held the primacy, therefore Egypt
also holds this right, that the bishop of Alexandria should
have authority over all," &c. Thereupon the genuine
text of the sixth Nicene canon was produced, and it was
found that in it the first words quoted by the legate were
wanting ; it began with, " Let the ancient customs prevail."
To this rebuff the legates could make no answer. The first
of the canons of Constantinople being read, the commis-
sioners called on the Pontic and " Asiatic" bishops to state
whether they voluntarily acquiesced in this new canon con-
ferring on the patriarch of Constantinople jurisdiction over
them. They answered one after another to the following
purpose " In the presence of God I say that I signed of
my own will" " I take pleasure in being under the throne
of Constantinople,"
The commissioners then pronounced that the primacy
and the pre-eminent dignity ought before all things to be
secured, according to the canons, to the archbishop of
Rome ; but that the archbishop of Constantinople ought to
enjoy the same privileges of dignity. The bishops ex-
claimed, " This is a just judgment We all adhere to this
decision." Lucentius made another attempt "The
apostolic see ought not to be degraded in our presence.
* *
158 Lives of the Saints. [A P rUn.
We desire that what was done irregularly in our absence be
rescinded, or else that our protest be recorded, that we may
know what report we ought to make to the apostolic pope
of the Church Universal, so that he may be able to declare
his judgment as to the injury done to his see, or the sub-
version of the canons." The commissioners replied with
laconic emphasis, "What we have said has been approved
by the whole council." l
The bishops, before separating, drew up a letter to
Marcian, expressing their thankfulness for a zealous em-
peror, and another to S. Leo, in which they addressed him
as their head and father, the appointed guardian of the Vine,
expressing a confidence that he would confirm their canon
in favour of Constantinople.
Whilst the Eastern Empire was thus distracted by heresy,
the West was harassed by the barbarians. Attila, "the
scourge of God," at the head of his Huns, had devastated
Gaul, and was now (452) marching into Italy. Amidst the
general consternation, Aetius, who had defeated Attila at
Chalons, alone was incapable of fear; but it was impossible
that he could achieve, alone and unassisted, any military
exploits worthy of his former renown. The barbarians who
had defended Gaul refused to march to the relief of Italy.
If the mind of Valentinian had been susceptible of any
generous sentiments, he would have chosen this great
general as his example and his guide. But the timid grand-
son of Theodosius, instead of sharing the dangers, escaped
from the sound of war ; and his hasty retreat from Ravenna
to Rome, from an impregnable fortress to an open capital,
betrayed his secret intention of abandoning Italy, as soon
as the danger should approach his imperial person. This
shameful abdication was suspended, however, by the spirit
1 This canon has never been acknowledged in the West; it received the sig-
natures of only 150 prelates, and those chiefly of the diocese of Constantinople.
* *
April no ,S. Leo the Great. 159
of doubt and- delay, which, commonly adheres to pusillani-
mous counsels, and sometimes corrects their pernicious
tendency.
The Western emperor, with the senate and people of
Rome, embraced the more salutary resolution of depre-
cating, by a solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of
Attila. S. Leo, whose greatness shone conspicuous in this
time of distress and despair, readily offered to head this
embassy. The coward emperor was preparing for flight,
Aetius was unable to march against the invader, all Italy
lay open and undefended before the invader. It was the
only hope for Rome, and therefore Leo embraced it with
resolution. He met Attila at Ambuleium, near Ravenna,
where the highway crosses the river Menzo. The barbarian
monarch listened with favourable, and even respectful,
attention j and the deliverance of Italy was purchased by
the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria.
The state of his army might facilitate the treaty and hasten
his retreat. Their martial spirit was relaxed by the wealth
and indolence of a warm climate. The shepherds of the
North, whose ordinary food consisted of milk and raw flesh,
indulged themselves too freely in the use of bread, of wine,
and of meat prepared and seasoned by the arts of cookery,
and the progress of disease revenged in some measure the
injuries of the Italians.
The pressing eloquence of Leo, his majestic aspect, and
sacerdotal robes, excited the veneration of Attila for the
spiritual father of the Christians. The apparition of the
two apostles, S. Peter and S. Paul, who menaced the bar-
barian with death, if he rejected the prayer of their suc-
cessor, is one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tra-
dition. The emperor of the West, the feeble and dissolute
Valentinian III., who had reached his thirty-fifth year without
attaining the age of reason or courage, abused the security
*
160 Lives of the Saints.
that ensued to undermine the foundations of his own throne
by the murder of Aetius. The fame of this great general,
his wealth and dignity, and the hopes of his son Gaudentius,
who was already contracted to Eudoxia, the emperor's
daughter, had raised him above the rank of a subject The
ambitious designs of which he was secretly accused, excited
the fears of Valentinian. Aetius himself, supported by the
consciousness of his merit, his services, and perhaps his
innocence, rashly ventured his person in the palace of
Rome. Whilst he urged the marriage of his son, Valen-
tinian, drawing his sword the first sword he had ever
drawn plunged it in the breast of the general who had saved
his empire; and before the event could be divulged, the
friends of the patrician were summoned to the palace, and
separately murdered. The public contempt which had
been so longed entertained for Valentinian was at once
converted into deep and universal abhorrence. The
emperor was confounded by the honest reply of a Roman,
whose approbation he had not disdained to solicit " I am
ignorant, sire, of your motives or provocations. I only
know that you have acted like a man who cuts off his right
hand with his left."
Valentinian, who supposed that every human breast was
devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had im-
prudently admitted among his guards several domestics of
Aetius. These suddenly fell on him one day as he amused
himself with the spectacle of some military sports, and
stabbed him to the breast
Genseric, king of the Vandals, seeing the Western empire
without a defender, and without a lawful prince, equipped a
numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at
the mouth of the Tiber, about three months after the death
of Valentinian. The usurper Maximus was then on the
imperial throne. Maximus proved himself wholly incapable
April no S. Leo tJte Great. 161
of administering the empire he had assumed to govern and
protect When the Vandals disembarked at the mouth of
the Tiber, the emperor was suddenly roused from his
lethargy by the clamours of a trembling and exasperated
multitude. The only hope which presented itself to his
astonished mind was that of a precipitate flight, and he ex-
horted the senators to imitate the example of their prince.
But no sooner did Maximus appear in the streets, than he
was assaulted by a shower of stones ; a soldier slew him,
and his mangled body was ignominiously cast into the
Tiber.
On the third day after the tumult, Genseric boldly ad-
vanced from the port of Ostia to the gates of the defenceless
city. Instead of a sally of the Roman youth, there issued
from the gates an unarmed and venerable procession of the
pope at the head of his clergy. The fearless spirit of S.
Leo, his authority and eloquence, again mitigated the
fierceness of a barbarian conqueror ; the king of the Vandals
promised to spare the unresisting multitude, to protect the
buildings from fire, and to exempt the captives from torture,
and although such orders were neither seriously given, nor
strictly obeyed, the mediation of S. Leo was glorious to
himself, and in some degree beneficial to his country. The
pillage of Rome lasted fourteen days and nights, and all
that yet remained of public or private wealth, of sacred ox
profane treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of
Genseric. The holy instruments of the Jewish worship, the
golden table, and the gold candlestick of seven branches,
taken from the Temple of Jerusalem, had been deposited
by Titus in the temple of Peace ; and now, at the end of
four hundred years, the spoils of Jerusalem were transferred
from Rome to Carthage by a barbarian who derived his
origin from the shores of the Baltic. The Christian churches
also afforded plentiful materials for sacrilege. The imperial
VOL. rv. ii
*
1 62 Lives of the Saints. [Apra.
ornaments of the palace, the magnificent furniture and
wardrobe, the sideboards of massive plate, were accumu-
lated with disorderly rapine. The blazing roof of gilt bronze
on the Capitol was cast down, and packed on vessels for
Carthage. Gold and silver, even brass and copper, were
laboriously removed. It was difficult either to escape or to
satisfy the avarice of a conqueror, who possessed leisure to
collect, and ships to transport, the wealth of the capital
Many thousand Romans of both sexes were carried off as
slaves ; and their distress was aggravated by the unfeeling
barbarians, who, in the division of the booty, separated the
wives from their husbands, and the children from their
parents. The charity of S. Deogratias, bishop of Carthage,
was their only consolation and support 1
It must have been with tears of grief that the great Leo
saw the ruin of the Western empire, and the degradation of
the eternal city. He survived the sack of Rome five years,
labouring to repair the havoc that had been made of the
churches in Rome, and to restore or console the captives
at Carthage, by sending them alms and priests. At last he
died on Nov. loth, 461, taken before the Roman people had
been made to drink the cup of bitterness to the dregs by the
invasion of the Ostrogoths and the establishment of bar-
barian princes on the throne of the Caesars. His body was
laid in the church of S. Peter, and was afterwards trans-
lated to another place in the same basilica, on the nth
April. His relics were again translated with great solemnity
and placed in an altar under his invocation, in the Vatican
church, in the year 1715.
1 See S. Deogratias, March aancU
8. GODEBERTHA. After Cahier.
April it.
April n.j S. Guthlac. 16
S. GODEBERTHA, V.
(A.D. 670.)
[Galilean and Belgian Martyrologies. Authority : A life apparently by
Ratpod, bishop of Noyon (fl. 1067), and there r ore too late to be of great
value, except as far as it contains earlier records.]
GODEBERTHA was born of pious parents, in the neigh-
bourhood of Amiens. When of an age to be married she
was taken to the court of king Clothair III., by her father,
that he might obtain permission from the king to marry her
to some one of suitable rank and fortune. S. Eligius, B. of
Noyon, was then at court, and there was something so pure
and sweet in the young girl's fair face, that the venerable
prelate's heart was touched; and he desired to see her
dedicated to Christ, as his spotless spouse. So he plucked
off his episcopal ring, and going up to the maiden, before
the king, placed it on her finger, saying, " I betroth thee to
Christ." Her look expressed her gratitude and joy. He
had read her heart's desire. Her father began to cry ; all
present stood silent in astonishment But the king, seeing
that Godebertha was willing to dedicate her virginity to
God, richly endowed her with his palace at Noyon and the
oratory of S. George in that city, as her bridal portion.
She received also twelve virgins to serve God under her
rule, and she chose S. Eligius as her spiritual guide.
S. Godebertha died on April nth, 670. In art she
appears with S. Eligius placing the ring on her finger.
S. GUTHLAC, P.H.
(A.D. 714.)
[Anglican and Roman MartyrologieSj the Monastic Martyrologies of
Wyon and Menardus, etc. Authorities : A life by Felix, commonly
called "of Croyland," a contemporary, at least he flourished in the time of
-*
*
1 64 Lives of the Saints. [April H.
Alfwald, king of the East Angles, who reigned from 713 to 749. At
Croyland, Felix had an opportunity of gathering many traditions of S.
Guthlac, and he tells us that he had the further advantage of conversations
with those who had been his personal acquaintances, among whom were
Abbot Wilfrid, and the priest Beccal, who ministered to him.J
IN the days of Ethelred, king of the Mercians, there was
a nobleman of Mercia, called Penwald ; he belonged to the
oldest and noblest family, called the Iclings. He was in
worldly things wealthy, and when he was wealthiest he
desired to take to himself a wife. He chose from the
multitude of maidens the one who was fairest, and of the
noblest kin ; she was called Tette. And they were together
until the time that God ordained that the woman became
with child. Now after the child was born, on the eighth
day, it was brought to the holy laver of baptism, and a
name was given him from the appellation of the' family
and the clan, Guthlac. When the age came that the child
should speak in child-fashion, he was no whit dull, nor
disobedient to his parents in their commands, nor to those
who nurtured him, either elder or younger. Nor was he
addicted to boyish levities, nor to the vain talk of vulgar men,
nor to unseemly fawning, nor lying flattering. Nor did he
study the various cries of fowls, as childish age is often
wont But he grew up in sharpness, and was blithe in
countenance, and pure and clean in his disposition, and
innocent in his ways. After a time, when his strength
waxed and he grew up to manhood, then he thought on the
strong deeds of the heroes, and of the men of yore. There-
upon as though he had woke from sleep, his disposition
changed, and he collected a great troop of his companions
and equals, and himself took weapons. Then wreaked he his
grudges on his enemies, and burned their city, and ravaged
their farms, and widely through the land made much
slaughter, and slew and^took from men their goods. It
was about nine years that the blessed Guthlac was thus
-*
Guthlac. 16
engaged in hostile raids. But it happened one night when
he had come from an expedition, as he rested his weary
limbs, and thought over what he had done, he was suddenly
inspired with divine awe, and his heart glowed with spiritual
love ; and when he awoke he thought on the old kings who
were of yore, who, thinking of the wretched end of sinful
life, forsook this world, and he saw all his ambition vanish
on a sudden. And filled with godly fear, he vowed that if
God would spare him till the morrow he would be His
servant. When the darkness of night was gone, he arose
and signed himself with the mark of Christ's rood. Then
he bade his companions find another captain, and he told
them that he would thenceforth be the servant of Christ.
When they heard these words, they were greatly astonished,
and begged him not to perform the things he had said.
But he cared not for their words. God's love so burnt
within him, that not only did he despise the world, but also
he forsook his parents' home and wealth, and even his
companions, and set all his hope on Christ And after that
he went to the monastery of Repton, and there received the
tonsure, under the abbess Elfrida. And after he had
assumed the monastic habit, he would taste no fermented
liquor. Therefore the brethren hated him ; but soon after,
when they perceived the sincerity of his mind, and the
cleanness of his life, they all loved him. He was in figure
tall, and trim in body, winsome in mood, and goodly of
countenance ; he was mild and modest in his talk, and he
was patient and humble, and ever in his heart divine love
was hot and burning. When he had been two years in the
monastery, he had learned the psalms, canticles, and hymns,
and prayers, after Church order. Then he began to long
for the wilderness and a hermitage. So he begged leave of
the elders that he might depart,
One district only in Mid-England was desolate enough
1 66 Lives of the Saints. [Apm
to attract those who wished to be free from the world, viz.,
the great fens north of Cambridge j 1 and there, accordingly,
as early as the seventh century, hermits settled in morasses
now so utterly transformed that it is difficult to restore in
one's imagination the original scenery.
The fens in the seventh century were probably very like
the forests at the mouth of the Mississippi, or the swampy
shores of the Carolinas. Their vast plain is now, in
summer, one sea of golden corn ; in winter, a black dreary
fallow, cut into squares by stagnant dykes, and broken only
by unsightly pumping mills and doleful lines of poplar trees.
Of old it was a labyrinth of black wandering streams \ broad
lagoons ; morasses submerged every spring-tide \ vast beds
of reed and sedge and fern; vast copses of willow, alder,
and grey poplar, rooted in the floating peat, which was
swallowing up slowly, all-devouring, yet all-preserving, the
forests of fir and oak, ash and poplar, hazel and yew, which
had once grown on that low, rank soil, sinking slowly (so
geologists assure us) beneath the sea from age to age.
Trees, torn down by flood and storm, floated and lodged
in rafts, damming the waters back upon the land. Streams,
bewildered in the flats, changed their channels, mingling
silt and sand with the peat moss. Nature, left to herself,
ran into wild riot and chaos more and more, till the whole
fen became one " Dismal Swamp," in which, at the time of
the Norman Conquest, Hereward, the " Last of the Eng-
lish/' took refuge from the invading tyrants.
1 This is the description of it by Felix : "There is in Britain a fen of immense
size, which begins from the river Grant (the Cam), not far from the city named
Grantchester (near Cambridge). There are immense marshes, now a black pool of
water, now foul running channels, and also many islands, and reeds, and hillocks,
and thickets, and with manifold windings wide and long it continues up to the
North Sea." The following picturesque sketch of the great Cambridgeshire fens is
from the pen of Mr. C. Kingsley, "The Hermits.'* It is given, as the lives of such
as S. Guthlac and S. Botolph cannot be understood without the scenes in which
they acted being brought clearly before the eye.
April ii.] S. Gutklac.
For there are islands in the sea which have escaped the
destroying deluge of peat moss, outcrops of firm and
fertile land, which in the early Middle Age were so many
natural parks, covered with richest grass and stateliest trees,
swarming with deer and roe, goat and boar, as the streams
around swarmed with otter and beaver, and with fowl of
every feather, and fish of every scale.
Beautiful after their kind were those fair isles in the eyes
of the monks who were the first settlers in the wilderness.
The author of the " History of Ramsey" grows enthusiastic,
and somewhat bombastic also, as he describes the lovely
isle, which got its name from the solitary ram who had
wandered thither, either in extreme drought or over the
winter ice, and, never able to return, was found feeding
among the wild deer, fat beyond the wont of rams. He
tells of the stately ashes, most of them cut in his time, to
furnish mighty beams for the Church roof; of the rich
pastures painted with all gay flowers in spring; of the
"green crown" of reed and alder which encircled the isle;
of the fair wide mere, now drained, with its " sandy beach"
along the forest side ; " a delight," he says, " to all who
look thereon."
In like humour William of Malmesbury, writing in the
first half of the twelfth century, speaks of Thorney Abbey
and its isle. "It represents," says he, " a very paradise;
for that in pleasure and delight it resembles heaven itself.
These marshes abound in trees, whose length, without a
knot, doth emulate the stars. The plain there is as level
as the sea, alluring the eye with its green grass, and so
smooth that there is nought to trip the foot of him who
runs through it Neither is there any waste place; for in
some parts are apples, in others vines, which are either
spread on the ground, or raised on poles. A mutual strife
there is between Nature and Art^ so that what one produces
1 68 Lives of the Saints.
not, the other supplies. What shall I say of those fair
buildings, which 'tis so wonderful to see the ground among
those fens upbear?"
So wrote William of Malmesbury, after the industry and
wisdom of the monks, for more than four centuries, had
been at work to civilize and cultivate the wilderness. Yet
even then there was another side to the picture; and
Thorney, Ramsey, or Crowland, would have seemed, for
nine months every year, sad places enough to us comfort-
able folk of the nineteenth century. But men lived hard in
those days, even the most high-born and luxurious nobles
and ladies ; under dark skies, in houses which we should
think, from darkness, draught, and want of space, unfit for
felons' cells. Hardly they lived, and easily were they
pleased ; and thanked God for the least gleam of sunshine,
the least patch of green, after the terrible 'and long winters
of the Middle Ages. And ugly enough those winters must
have been, what with snow and darkness, flood and ice,
ague and rheumatism; while through the dreary winter's
night the whistle of the wind and the wild cries of the
waterfowl were translated into the howls of witches and
demons; and the delirious fancies of marsh-fever made
those fiends take hideous shapes before the inner eye, and
act fantastic horrors round the fenman's bed of sedge.
Now when S. Guthlac found out the wilderness, he in-
quired of those who lived on the edge of the fen where he
might find land that would serve him as a home. There
was a man named Tatwin, who said that he knew an island
which oftimes men had attempted to inhabit, but none had
succeeded, on account of manifold horrors and fears, and
the loneliness of the wide wilderness. When Guthlac heard
these words, he bid him straightway shew him the place,
and he did so ; he embarked in a boat, and they rowed
through the wild fens till they came to the spot called Crow
April H.J S. Guthlac. 169
or Croyland, which was so lost in the marsh that few knew
of it except Tatwin, who had shewn it him. It was on S.
Bartholomew's Day that Guthlac came crashing through the
reeds of the morass to the island which was to be thence-
forth his home for life.
When he had been there a few days, he was able to see
what things he needed for settling there, and he resolved to
return to Repton, and salute his brethren, for he had gone
away from them without taking leave. So in the morning
he went back to the monastery, and there he remained
ninety nights, and then returned to the beloved wilderness
with two servants. He was six-and-twenty years of age
when, endowed with heavenly grace, he first settled in the
wilderness.
Soon after he had settled there, he was tormented at
nights by strange sights and noises. He saw hairy figures
leaping about his island, and talking in British. His
imagination caused him to regard them as devils, but there
can be no doubt as to who they were, some of the old
British who had been driven by the Saxon invaders into
these wilds, where they dwelt among the islets of the vast
morass, unmolested, as in after years Saxons took refuge in
them from the Normans ; and these resented the intrusion
of the hermit, and endeavoured to scare him away, and
even had recourse to violence for that purpose. 1 His
imagination invested these islanders with fantastic terrors ;
and we read in the life by Felix how they "filled the house
with their coming, and poured in on every side, from above,
and from beneath, and everywhere. They were in coun-
tenance horrible, and they had great heads, and a long
1 There can, I think, be no question about this. Felix introduces the account by
saying that this was at a time when the British, "the enemies of the Angle race,"
were annoying the English in various contests. Guthlac, the biographer informs
us, "understood the language of these accursed spirits speaking British, because
he had been erewhile in exile among them."
* : *
*
170 JLives of the Sa^nts. [Apru.
neck, and a lean visage ; they were filthy and squalid in
their beards, and they had rough ears, and crooked 'nebs/
and fierce eyes, and foul mouths ; and their teeth were like
horses' tusks ; and their throats were filled with flame, and
they were grating in their voices ; they had crooked shanks,
and knees big and great behind, and distorted toes, and
cried hoarsely with their voices ; and they came with im-
moderate noise and immense horror, that he thought that
all between heaven and earth resounded with their voices.
. . . And they tugged and led him out of the cot, and led
him to the swart fen, and threw and sunk him in the muddy
waters. After that they brought him into the wild places
of the wilderness, among the thick beds of brambles, that
all his body was torn. . . . After that they took him and beat
him with iron whips, and after that they brought him on
their creaking wings between the cold regions of the air."
S. Guthlac found on the island a great "law" or burial
mound, of old British times, which some men had broken
into in hopes of finding treasure. On the side of the
mound was a hole in which water stood. Beside this
Guthlac erected his hermitage. Then he resolved that he
would use neither woollen nor linen garment, but that he
would wear only clothing of skins ; and so he continued to
do. Every day he ate barley bread and drank water.
One day the British devils endeavoured to persuade him to
abandon the use of bread except on one day in seven ; but
Guthlac saw through the ingenious scheme whereby they
sought to rid the islet of his presence, and persisted in his
daily consumption of barley bread.
The biographer of S. Guthlac goes on to relate how one
Beccel, who acted as his servant, was shaving the saint one
day, when there fell on him a great temptation. Why
should he not cut S. Guthlac's throat, and instal himself in
his cell, that he might have the honour and glory of saint-
S. Guthlac. 171
hood? But S. Guthlac perceived the inward temptation,
which is told with the naive honesty of those half-savage
times, and rebuked the offender into confession, so that all
went well to the end.
But there are gentler and more human touches in that
old legend. One may read in it how all the wild birds of
the fen came to S. Guthlac, and he fed them after their
kind ; how the ravens tormented him, stealing letters, gloves,
and what not, from his visitors; and then, seized with
compunction at his reproofs, brought them back, or hanged
them on the reeds ; and how, as Wilfrid, a holy visitant,
was sitting speaking with him in his island, "there came
suddenly two swallows flying on, and behold they raised up
their song rejoicingly; and after that they sat fearlessly on
the shoulders of the holy man Guthlac, and then lifted up
their song; and afterwards they sat on his bosom, and on
his arms and his knees. When Wilfrid had long wondering
beheld these birds, he asked him wherefore the wild birds
of the wilderness so submissively sat upon him. The holy
man Guthlac answered him, 'Hast thou never learnt,
brother Wilfrid, in Holy Writ, that with him who has led
his life after God's will, the wild beasts and wild birds are
tame? 7 " At length, after fifteen years in the fen, God was
pleased to call His servant to Himself. It happened that
he was in his chapel at his prayers, when he was attacked
with illness. Beccel came to him and asked what ailed
him. Guthlac answered slowly, and drew his breath with
difficulty, " The meaning of my illness is this, that the spirit
must be taken away from this body" When Beccel heard
this, his tears burst forth. Then Guthlac comforted him,
saying, " My son, be not thou grieved, for to me it is no
sorrow to go to my Lord and God." When after four
nights, Easter arrived, Guthlac in his sickness performed
service to God, and sang mass, for he had been ordained
1 72 Lives of the Saints. [April n,
priest, and after he had offered the precious sacrifice, he
began to preach to Beccel, "and he penetrated him so
deeply with his counsel that he never before or after heard
the like/' When the seventh day of his illness came Beccel
arrived at the sixth hour of the day to visit him. He found
him leaning in the corner of his oratory, against the altar.
He could not speak to him at first, for, as he saw, S.
Guthlac was in pain. But presently the holy man raised
his weary limbs from the wall, and said, " My son, now it
is very near the time, and do thou attend to my last com-
mands. After my soul departs from the body, go to my
sister Pegge 1 and tell her that I would not see her in life,
that we might meet in heaven, before the face of God ; and
bid her place my body in the leaden coffin, and wind it in
the sheet which Ecgburh the abbess sent me, and lay it in
the coffin that holy virgin gave me." When he had thus
spoken, he leaned his head against the wall, and uttered a
long drawn sigh.
And on the following night, when Beccel fell to his
nightly prayers, it seemed to him that the whole house was
encompassed about with a great brightness, and the light
remained till day. When it dawned on the morrow, the
man of God stirred again a little, and raised up his weary
limbs. Then he said to Beccel, " My son, prepare thyself
to go on a journey which I bid thee ; for now is the time
for my spirit to leave these aching limbs and depart to end-
less joy." When he had said this, he stretched out his
hands to the altar, and strengthened himself with the Body
and Blood of Christ And after that he raised his eyes to
heaven, and stretched out his arms, and was dead.
After his death there arose on the place sanctified by the
life and death of Guthlac a church with a community of
monks, till at last, founded on great piles driven into the
i See Jan. 8.
April it.] fcS. Guthlac. 173
morass, arose the lofty wooden abbey of Crowland, "at the
estuary of four rivers," with its dykes, parks, vineyards,
orchards, rich plough lands, from which, in time of famine,
the monks of Crowland fed all the people of the neighbour-
ing fens, with its tower with seven bells, an abbey which
became a place of sanctuary for all who fled from tyranny
and slavery.
Those who took refuge in S. Guthlac's place from cruel
lords must keep his peace towards each other, and earn
their living like honest men, safe while they so did; for
between those four rivers S. Guthlac and his abbot were the
only lords j and neither summoner, nor sheriff of the king,
nor armed force of knight or earl, could enter "the in-
heritance of the Lord, the soil of S. Mary and S. Bartholo-
mew, the most holy sanctuary of S. Guthlac and his monks,
the minster free from worldly servitude, the special alms-
house of most illustrious kings, the sole refuge of any one
in worldly tribulation, the perpetual abode of the saints,
the possession of religious men; specially set apart by the
common council of the realm ; by reason of the frequent
miracles of the holy confessor S. Guthlac, an ever-fruitful
garden of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi; and, by
reason of the privileges granted by the kings, a city of grace
and safety to all who repent"
The great and good work begun by the monks was
carried on by others whom they had pioneered, as by
Richard de Rules, Lord of Deeping (the deep meadow),
who resolved to do the same work from the hall of Bourne,
which the monks did from their cloisters ; and having got
permission from the Croyland monks, for twenty marks of
silver, to drain as much as he could of the common marshes,
shut out the Welland by strong dykes, built cottages,
marked out gardens, and tilled fields, till "out of slough
and bogs accursed he made a garden of pleasure."
*
i/4 Lives of the Saints. [A P nin.
One other lasting work those monks of Crowland seem
to have done, besides those firm dykes and rich corn lands
of the Porsand, which endure unto this day. For within
two generations of the Norman conquest, while the old
wooden abbey, destroyed by fire, was being replaced by
that noble pile of stone whose ruins are still standing, the
French abbot of Crowland sent French monks to open a
school under the new French donjon, in the little Roman
town of Grante-brigge, whereby so does all earnest work
grow and spread in this world, infinitely and for ever S.
Guthlac, by his canoe voyage into Crowland Island, became
the spiritual father of the University of Cambridge in the
Old World ; and therefore of her noble daughter, the Uni-
versity of Cambridge, in the New World, which fen-men
sailing from Boston deeps colonized and Christianized 800
years after S. Guthlac's death. 1
1 Passages of this article are extracted from the sketch of S. Guthlac In Mr.
Kingsley's " The Hermits."
*-
April K.] S. Zeno. 175
April 12.
S. ZENO, B, of Perona, 4th cent.
S. VICTOR, M. at Braga in Portugal.
S. VISSIA, r. M. at Fermo, in the Marches of Ancona*
S. JULIUS 1., Pope of Rome, A.D. 3^2.
S. SABAS THE GOTH, ^f. at Cappadocia, A.D. 372.
S. CoNbTANTiNE, B. of Gap in France, 6th cent.
S. ERKEMBODE, B. of fkerouanne, A.D. 742.
S. ZENO, B. OF VERONA.
(4TH CENT.)
[Roman and most other Latin Martyrologies. At Verona also on May
2ist, the Feast of his Translation, and Dec. 6th, that of his Consecration.
Authorities : Mention by S. Ambrose and S. Gregory the Great, his
own sermons, and a life of uncertain date, by Coronatus, a Notary. In
some Martyrologies he is styled Confessor, in others, incorrectly, Martyr,
for S. Ambrose, his contemporary, speaks of his happy death, and says
that he did not die by the sword. "The Roman Martyrology describes
S. Zeno, B. of Verona, in Lombardy, as a martyr under Gallienus, in the
3rd cent., but the learned do not recognize any other saint of this name
who was bishop of Verona, except he who lived in the reign of the emperor
Valentinian I. and Gratian, and whom S. Ambrose speaks of as a prelate
of holy memory, but of his martyrdom we have no knowledge, any more
than we have of the acts of his life." Glaire : Diet. univ. des Sciences
EccLj
S. VICTOR, M.
(DATE UNKNOWN.)
[Braga, Evora, Compostella and Mozarabic Breviaries; also Roman
Martyrology. Authority : Mention in the Breviaries.]
VICTOR was a catechumen at Braga in
Portugal, who, in a pagan festival refused to offer
^^0^) 1 incense and flowers to an idol. He was tortured
_l^rr^ . and decapitated, and was thus baptized in his
own blood.
1 76 Lives of the Saints.
S. JULIUS I, POPE.
(A.D. 352.)
[Roman Martyrology, that attributed to S. Jerome, Bede, Notker,
Habanus, &c. Authorities : The Apology of S. Athanasius, Socrates, II.
Hist. Eccles. 16.]
S. JULIUS succeeded S. Mark as Pope of Rome, in 337.
He bravely sustained S. Athanasius against his Arian foes,
and we must refer the reader to the life of that great Doctor
of the Church for almost all that is known of him. He
sent legates to the Council of Sardica, in 347,
S. SABAS THE GOTH, M.
(A.D. 372.)
[Modern Roman Martyrology. Inserted by Baronius. Among the
Greeks on April i8th ; but in the Menology of the emperor Basil, on the
iSttu Authority : The authentic Acts of his Passion sent by the Gothic
Church to the Church of Cappadocia.]
SABAS was a Goth who suffered under Athanarid, king of
the Goths, for refusing to eat meat in honour of their gods.
He was drowned by order of the king in the river Mussovo,
in Wallachia, which is either the Yalonutza or Koltentima,
near Tirgovist The soldiers who were commissioned to
drown him, had attached an axle-tree to his neck, and
when he was under the water, they strangled him with it
April 13.1 S. Justin the Apologist. 177
April 13.
S. JUSTIN THE APOLOGIST, M. at Rome, A.D. 167.
SS. CARPUS, B. of Yhyatira, AND COMPANIONS, MM. at Pergamtu,
circ. A.D. 350.
SS. MAXIMUS, QUINTILIAN AND DADA&, MM. in Bulgaria, A.D. 287.
S. URSUS, B. of Ravenna, A.D. 396.
S. HERMBNIQILD, K.M. in Spain, A.D. 586.
S. WINOCK, 5. in Scotland, circ. A.D. 875.
S. IDA, /T., Countess of Boulogne, A.D. 1113.
S. CARADOC, H. in Wales, A.D. 1124.
YEN. IDA OF LOUVAIN, O.C. of fal-des-Roses, near Mechlin, A.D. 1300.
S. JUSTIN THE APOLOGIST, M.
(A.D. 167.)
[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on June ist, both S, Justin the
Philosopher and M. "who died by poison/' and S. Justin and Com-
panions, MM., who died by the sword. Authorities : Eusebius, lib. iv.
16, S. Epiphanus, and above all, his own writings. The Acts of his
martyrdom are a forgery.]
among the fathers of the Church, there are
many who, in their writing, give us next to no
information concerning themselves, Justin is, in
this respect, a happy exception. We learn
from him, on this subject, a multitude of details of the
highest interest In his first apology, Justin tells us of his
country and his father. He tells us that his father was
called Priscus, and his grandfather Bacchms, and that he
dwelt at Flavia Neapolis, the ancient Sychem, in Samaria.
They were of Greek origin, and it is probably not without
reason that they are supposed to have been descended
from the Roman colony sent by Vespasian to that town. 1
Justin was born at the beginning of the second century.
In his dialogue with Trypho, he gives an account of his
Flay. Joseph. Antig. 1. v. c. 4.
VOL. IV. I^
*
j 78 Lives of the Saints. [A P ru 13
early education, and his conversion to Christianity. His
parents were rich, and gave him a .good education and
varied instruction. In his early youth he felt a strong
desire to study philosophy, and to learn about God. He
therefore went to a Stoic and attended his lessons; but
from him he heard nothing about God, for the Stoic
philosophy, said he, knows not God, and undertakes to
prove that it is not necessary to know Him. He therefore
left his school and went to a Peripatetic. But the man
began to haggle about the fees to be paid for attending his
lectures, and this disgusted Justin, and he left him. Al-
ways craving to know about God, he sought out a Pytha-
gorean. This philosopher told the enquirer that he x must
learn music, astronomy, and geometry, for it is by science
that the soul disengages itself from sense, and lays itself
open to spiritual influences. But Justin knew nothing of
music, astronomy, and geometry, and he despaired of a
system which made the knowledge of God impossible to
all but a student of the arts and sciences. In his embarass-
ment he turned to a Platonic philosopher, and here he was
more fortunate. Plato was a schoolmaster leading to
Christ Justin says, " The knowledge of metaphysics, the
contemplation of ideas, gave buoyancy to my spirit, and in
a short time I thought I was a sage; and I flattered myself
that I should soon attain a sight and science of the God-
head ; for to this does the Platonic philosphy tend."
As a Platonic philosopher he sought solitude in which to
muse. He chose for the purpose the sea-shore. There
one day he met an old man of grave and reverend aspect,
with whom he entered into conversation. The thoughts
uppermost in his mind flowed out, and the old man
listened, and then asked why Justin abandoned himself to
reflection, rather than to action. Justin replied that in
man nothing was pleasing to God save philosophic medi-
*
*
Apm i 3 o S. Jiistin the Apologist. 179
tation. In the course of conversation the old man ex-
pressed doubts on the Platonist maxim which Justin was
unable to resolve, and he was forced to admit that his
philosophy was not sufficient to satisfy the craving of the
human mind.
Justin then asked to whom he must apply for a truer
knowledge; and the old man bade him turn to the
prophets, to Jesus Christ and His disciples, and to pray
God to open his eyes to the truth. Justin relates that at
these words a fire was kindled in his soul, and he set
himself with enthusiasm to study the sacred writings.
Shortly after, a persecution having broken forth, he had
occasion to admire the firmness of the Christians, and he
declared himself ready to become one of them. His con-
version took place in 133, when he was thirty years old.
He resolved to devote himself to the conversion of the
intellectual heathen, and to the defence of Christianity.
He continued to wear his philosopher's cloak. He opened
a school at Rome. Some passages in his Apology, and the
acts of his martyrdom, which are not however genuine,
lead us to believe that he was priest of a Church of Greeks
at Rome. His indefatigable activity, his zeal for the cause
of Christianity, but especially the skill he employed in
defending it against paganism and the philosophers, whose
ignorance he exposed, attracted their implacable hatred,
especially that of a Cyric named Crescens, and this was
the cause of his martyrdom, about the year 167.
S. Justin is regarded as the first of the Fathers of the
Church, as he is the earliest writer after the Apostles and
their disciples. His works were numerous. Those that re-
main to us are, two Apologies for Christians, a Dialogue with
Trypho, a Jew ; a book on the Unity of God, of which
only a fragment exists, and two discourses on the vanity of
idols and the truth of Christianity.
* ~
-*
180 Lives of tJu Saints.
SS. CARPUS, B., AND COMPANIONS, MM.
(ABOUT A.D. 250.)
[Martyrology of S. Jerome, so called, Ado, Notker, Usuardus,
Roman Martyrology, &c., in some, by an error, Carpus is called Poly-
carpus. By the Greeks on Oct. i3th. Authorities : Eusebius, Hist.
EccL 1. iv. c. 15, and Rufinus. The Acts given by Simeon Metaphrastes
are not genuine. They are probably founded on authentic acts, but have
been expanded, exaggerated, added to, and rewritten.]
EUSEBIUS thus briefly mentions these martyrs : " There
are, also, records extant of others that suffered martyrdom
in Pergamus, a city of Asia. Of these we mention Carpus
and Papylus, and a woman named Agathonice; who,
after many and illustrious testimonies given by them,
gloriously finished their course." These records have
formed the basis of the Acts which have came down to us,
after having passed through the hands of Metrophrastes.
They relate that Carpus was bishop of Thyatira, and that
Papylus was his deacon. They were arrested in the
persecution of Decius, by order of Valerius, governor of
Lydia. They were stripped, and heavy iron collars placed
round their necks, and so were taken to Sardis, together
with some of the servants of the bishop.
At Sardis suffered Agathodorus, one of these. The
governor then ordered them to be taken back to Thyatira,
a journey of two days, and there executed together with
Agathonice, the sister of Papylus the deacon. The Acts
are not to be trusted in the matter of the numerous
tortures to which they are exposed.
Apm 13.3 .S^S*. Maximus and Brothers. 181
SS. MAXIMUS, QUIJSTTILIAN, AND DADAS, MM.
(A.D. 287.)
[Greek Mensea and Roman Martyrology ; by the Greeks on April aStb,
The forger of the pseudo Dexter (under date 290), Higuera inserted
these martyrs as suffering in Spain, on the strength of which Tamajus
Salazar inserted them in his Spanish Martyrology. Authorities: The
Greek Acts, which are genuine.]
IN the second year of the joint rule of Diocletian and
Maximian, Tarquinius and Gabinus were proconsuls in
Bulgaria. A decree having gone forth against the Christ-
ians, three men, Maximus, Quintilian, and Dada, were
denounced to him as refusing to join in idolatrous wor-
ship. He immediately sent for them to Dorostolum or
Silistria, on the Danube. The questioning was as follows,
literally translated :
Tarquinius. " Are these the fellows who have despised
our mandate and follow their own religious caprices?"
Then turning to them he asked, " In the first place, give
your names."
Maximus. "I, according to the faith of Christ, am
called a Christian, as are these my brothers ; but accord-
ing to men, am called Maximus."
Tarquinius. " Thou hast answered as becomes a priest
serving some others than the gods. And this man who
follows thee, and opposes me in this matter, what is his
name?"
The second replied " I am Dadas. We are all one with
our brother, who answered first"
Tarquinius. "And the third yonder?"
Quintilian. " I am called Quintilian, and am a Chris-
tian."
Then Magnilian the notary having taken down their
words, the proconsul Gabinus said, " Hast thou got all
__ ^
182 Lives of the Satnts. [/v p riii 3 .
their names?" Magnilian the notary replied, "If thy
power orders, I will read the text." Gabinus the pro-
consul said, "Read then." Then Magnilian the notary
read out, "These are the names we have taken down,
Maximus, Dadas, and Quintilian." Then said the governor
Tarquinius, "Now, sirs, you are in our hands. If you
want to live, go along and sacrifice to the mother of the
gods, and be their priests ; and know that if one of their
priests dies who honours their mother, he is taken to the
heavenly king, the great Jove, to minister to him." S.
Maximus answered, "Most wicked and impudent man,
dost thou not shrink from calling an adulterer such as Jove
by the name of God, and call him the heavenly king?
Know, mad ones ! that Christ is our heavenly king, fore-
seeing all, and holding all things in His hand. Be well
assured that we will not obey thy damnable mandate, for
we adore the God of heaven, the work of whose hands are
we."
Gabinus, the pro-consul, calling to him Dadas and Quin-
tilian, endeavoured by persuasion to bend them to com-
pliance. But Dadas and Quintilian said to him, " We
agree with all that our brother Maximus says, for he is a
reader of the Catholic Church, and understands well the
Holy Scriptures, and knows just what we ought to do."
They were then re-conducted to prison, where they dreamt
that an angel came and told them that they were to die for
Christ. Next day they were recalled before the pro-
consuls. Then said Gabinus, "Now you are here again,
go and sacrifice to the gods, and we will do you no little
honour, if you comply, and avoid the death prepared for
you. Our gods appeared to us last night to urge this."
The martyrs replied, "And our God deigned to reveal
Himself to us in sleep and tell us that we must suffer for
him."
S. HERMENIGILD. After Cahier.
April 13.
*
April i 3 .] *. Hermenigild. 183
Then Tarquinius said to Gabinus, "Unless these fel-
lows are tortured, it will be impossible to persuade them."
Gabinus said, " If they will choose death, the guilt be
on their shoulders." Then they ordered the ministers to
tie them on the ground and beat them. The servants did
so. Then Tarquinius said, " question them and see if they
will yield before we proceed to extremities/' But the
martyrs replied with one voice, *' We are strengthened by
God, and despise your torments, we will not listen to your
counsel, nor sacrifice to your gods." So Tarquin the pro-
consul said, " If they will not obey, send them back to
prison; for it is dinner time." When the proconsuls
returned from dinner, at the seventh hour, they again
endeavoured to persuade the three brothers to yield, and
when they were unable to carry their point, they reluctantly
condemned them to lose their heads ; a sentence which
was carried into execution at their own village of Ozobia>
on the 28th of April 1
S. HERMENIGILD, KM.
(A.D. 586.)
[Roman and Spanish Martyrologies, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Wandel-
bert Authorities : S. Gregory the Great in his "Dialogues," L iii. c. 31.
S. Gregory of Tours, and the early Spanish historians.]
S. HERMENIGILD was the son of Leovigild, king of the
Visigoths in Spain, and of Theodosia or Theodota, as she
is variously called, the sister of S. Leander and S. Isidore,
archbishop of Seville. Educated an Arian, in 579, he
married Ingunda, daughter of Sigebert, king of Austrasia ;
i These genuine Acts offer the most striking contrast in the simplicity of the
dialogue to the inflated diction of the spurious Acts, such as those of S. Carpus
and his Companions, immediately preceding. Spurious Acts, especially such as
have come from Greek pens, are full of bombast, marvels and horrors.
1 84 Lives of the Saints. r Apra 13.
and this princess, aided by S. Leander, succeeded in con-
verting the prince to the true faith. Leovigild had given
his son a portion of his states to govern, of which Seville
was capital; but on his renouncing Arianism, Leovigild
threatened to despoil him of his authority. Hermenigild
refused to submit, and sent S. Leander to Constanti-
nople to implore the assistance of the emperor Tiberius
II. But failing in that quarter, Hermenigild endeavoured
to obtain assistance from the Roman troops 'who pro-
tected the remnant of the empire in Spain. These re-
ceived his money, and swore to support him, but their
assistance expired with the oath, and Hermenigild saw
himself surrounded in Seville by his father's forces, with-
out means of defence. He fled secretly to Cordova, and
then shut himself into Osseto with three hundred men.
But Osseto was stormed and taken by Leovigild, who set
the town on fire. The revolted prince took refuge from
his father and the flames in a church, and clung to the
altar. Leovigild sent his other son Recared to him to
promise life, if he would submit Hermenigild trusting the
message, cast himself at his father's feet. Leovigild raised
and embraced him, then removed the insignia of royalty,
and sent him in chains to the castle of Seville, When
Easter approached, Leovigild sent an Arian bishop to him
with a promise of pardon if he would receive the Holy
Communion from the hands of this prelate. Hermenigild
refused. Leovigild, in a paroxysm of rage, sent soldiers to
his dungeon with orders to kill him ; and the head of the
prince was cleft with a hatchet. The rebellion of Hermini-
gild against his own father is inexcusable ; but he expiated
it by his sufferings and death for the faith of Christ, and
the doctrine that He is very God and very Man.
---f'f
8. HEBMENGILD.
Prom an Engraving designed by Hans Burgimair.
[In this the artist represents the kins with his head surrounded br the anreols, and at Us feet areplioftof
the murder.]
[April 18.
April i 3 .] & Caradoc. 185
S. CARADOC, RH.
(A.D. 1124.)
[Capgrave, Alford, Menardus, and the Bollandists. Authority:
Mention by Giraldus Cambrensis, and a legendary life in Capgrave.]
S. CARADOC was born of good family in Brecknockshire,
and after a liberal education at home, attached himself to
the court of Rhys, prince of South Wales, where he occu-
pied himself with playing on the harp, and attending to
two greyhounds given to his charge by the prince. But
having lost the hounds, Rhys threatened to mutilate and
murder him. Then Caradoc exclaimed, "If this is the
gratitude of an earthly master, who, after long service,
storms and threatens to kill me for having lost his dogs, I
will betake myself to the service of One who gives pardon
for offences, and Hie eternal as a reward for service/'
Then, lance in hand for staff, he went forth to LlandafF,
killing a goat on his way with the lance, to supply himself
with food for his journey, At LlandafF he received from the
bishop the tonsure and habit of a monk, and retired to the
deserted church of S. Kined, and afterwards to a still more
solitary abode in the Isle of Ary, from whence he was
taken prisoner by some Norwegian pirates, but soon re-
leased. His last place of residence was S. Ismael, or the
parish of Haroldstone, near Haverfordwest, whose church
has S. Ismael for patron, and probably near a place called
Poorfield, the common on which Haverfordwest races are
held, as there is a well there called Caradoc's Well, round
which, till within the last few years, a fair has been held,
and country games celebrated. He was much harassed
by Richard de Tankard, governor of the castle of Haver-
ford, who carried off his sheep, and after his death made
an attempt to seize on his body. Shortly before he died, it
is said that as he was preparing for the Paschal Sacrifice,
1 86 Lives of the Saints. [Apni 13 .
he saw two men in glittering stoles enter the Church, bear-
ing a golden altar between them, on which was written,
"Follow us, we have meat to eat thou knowest not o"
Then he asked, "When shall I feast with you and your
brethren?" They answered in song, "The Lamb's high
banquet we await," 1 " Ad c&nam Agni providi" and said no
more. On the fourth day after he was taken with fever
and died.
1 This seems like a lingering reminiscence of the Keltic belief in the Holy Grail,
and reminds one of scenes in Sir Thomas Malory's la Morte d'Arthnr.
i i 4 .] S. Pronto. 187
April 14.
S. FRONTO, jib. m Nitria, in Egypt, znd cent.
SS. VALERIAN, TIBURTIUS AND MAXIMUS,, MM. at Rome, %.D. 229 (see
life ofS. Cecilia, Nov. 22).
S. ARDALIO, M. f circ. A.O. 300.
S. ABUNDIUS, Sacristan ofS, Peter's, Rome, 6th cent.
S. LANTBERT, B. of Lyons, circ. A.D. 688.
S. BENET OK THE BRIDGE, C. at Avignon, A.D. 1184.
S. LIDWYNA, V, at Schiedam in Holland, A.D. 1433.
S. FRONTO, AB.
(2ND CENT.)
[Martyrologies of S. Jerome, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, eta, and Roman
Martyrology. Peter de Natalibus and some others confuse Fronto the
Nitrian Abbot with Fronto, B. of Perigord. Authority : A life by a con-
temporary.]
the days of Antoninus the emperor, 1 in the
thirteenth year of his reign, an abbot Fronto
said to his seventy brethren, " Let us go into
the desert, and serve God in solitude." So
they agreed, and each took some olives, and a double-
pronged hoe (sarculum bis-acutum), and journeyed into the
wilderness. Now after a while they wearied of the life
there, and were very hungry, and they murmured among
themselves, saying, "Who can endure this sort of life?
Can one not serve God in towns and castles as well as in a
waste ? Here we are dying of hunger and worn out with
vigils." Then Fronto went to them and said, "I know
what ye murmur the one with the other. But let us believe
the Gospel. We are bidden take no thought for the mor-
row what ye shall eat and drink, and the promise of God
J The author of the life does not say which Antoninus.
1 88 Lives of the Samt$. [Aprii t4 .
standeth sure. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
Let us not by returning declare to God that we doubt His
word and mistrust His promise."
Now a rich man, after a great supper, lay musing in bed,
far away on the Nile bank, and he thought of the hermits
serving God in fasting among the brown bare rocks east
away, and his heart smote him, and he resolved to send
them food. But how, and whither? Next day he laded
seventy camels with provisions, and five with hay, and then
he drave the camels forth into the desert, that God might
send His angel to guide them whither food was most
needed. And after four days they arrived where Fronto
and his monks were. Then the brethren received them
with joy, and unladed the hay and washed the camels' feet,
and hasted, and found them fresh grass, and prepared a
fold where the camels might lie down and rest And when
they opened their burdens of food, they ate and blessed
God. But on the morrow, Fronto bade that only one half
of the food should be retained, and the rest returned. So
they packed this on the camels and sent them off again.
Now on the eighth day, as the rich man and his family
were together, and he was troubled lest his camels should
be lost, as they were talking, suddenly one started up and
listened, and heard the tinkle of the bell through the
windows. 1 Then he said, "I think I hear the tinkle of
bells among the mountains." And thereat all ran out, and
saw the line of camels returning, and were glad at heart,
and praised God. After that, every year, did the man send
food in like manner to Fronto, into the desert
l Per flamina ventorum campanulas capiebant sonitum.
i 4 .] iS^. Ardalio and Lidwyna. 189
S. ARDALIO, M.
(ABOUT A.D. 300.)
[Roman Martyrology. The Greek Mensea and the Menology af the
emperor Basil on April ijth. Authority : Mention in the Menology and
Mensea.]
S. ARDALIO was an actor like S. Gelasius (Feb. 27th)
and S. Genes (Aug. 25th), who was called on to turn the
Christians into ridicule. On the stage was enacted a
martyrdom ; and when the spectators were applauding his
imitation of a Christian before the judge, he shouted with a
loud voice, " Know all, that I am in earnest" He was
brought before the magistrate and was cast into a fire by
his orders. Where he suffered is not known.
S. LIDWYNA, V.
(A.D. 1433.)
[At Schiedam, formerly on the Thursday after Easter. Roman -and
Belgian Martyrologies on April i4th. Authorities : A life by John
Gerlach, a kinsman and attendant on S. Lidwyna, in Dutch. The same
in Latin, by John Brugmann, O.M., a contemporary, with additions from
oral accounts given him by Walter of Leyden, her confessor for eight
years, and from the letter of the magistrates of Schiedam to John of
Dordrecht corroborating the account of her infirmities. In the edition of
the Bollandists, all these additions of Brugmann to the text of Gerlach are
printed within brackets. A third life by the same John Brugmann, ad-
dressed to Dr, William Sonderdank, a physician. Brugmann was a writer
of the worst taste and most pedantic style. His prologue opens thus :
' Many incredible things have the poets feigned of the immortal Gods, of
Jove, Saturn, Mercury, Juno, Pallas, and of the deceptive beauty of Venus.
Many scribes have filled books and parchments in extolling the greatness
of Hercules, Hector, Troilus, Julius Caesar, the two Scipios, and others,"
and so on. He laments that he has not the skill of Sonderdank in des-
cribing the sores and hnposthumes of Lidwyna. "Would, O would that I,
O Doctor William, most excellent, who art surnamed Sonderdank, and
art of the medical profession. . . O would that of thy superabundant
i go Ltves of the Saints. [A P riit 4 .
benedictions, one only had descended on me, and that I like thee had
been permitted to see with my eyes of flesh that Pearl alive, to have heard
her speak and reply, to have, maybe, squeezed her virginal hand." A
fourth life, condensed from the above, was written by S. Thomas-a-
Kempis, who died in 1471.]
IN the time of Albert of Bavaria, count of Holland and
Zealand, there lived in Schiedam, a Dutch town on the
Maas, below Rotterdam, a man named Peter, who was one
of the city watch, making his nightly round with lantern
and horn, to call the hours and guard the town. His wife
was named Petronilla, a woman of Ketel, a village in the
flats near Schiedam, a worthy, industrious Dutch woman,
who bore him four sons and one daughter. The mother
was at church on Palm-Sunday when the pangs of maternity
came on her, and she hurried home to be delivered of a
little girl, who was christened Lidwyna. The name they
little thought it at the time was to be singularly appro-
priate ; it foreshadowed that child's after life, for Lidwyna
signifies the " Friend of Suffering." She grew up a pious
child, and when sent to take her brothers their luncheon
(jentaculum) at school, she never returned without having
visited a church for a few moments' prayer.
In 1395, when she was fifteen years old, an accident
happened which affected her whole after life. On the feast
of the Purification of Our Lady, Lidwyna went out with
some young girls, her friends, on the ice, wearing, as
Gerlach tells us, the wooden skates then in vogue. One of
the girls came swinging over the ice towards Lydwina,
intending to cut a figure on her skates round her; but
failing, tripped Lidwyna up, and she fell over a heap of ice-
blocks, broke one of her ribs, and was otherwise internally
injured.' A large abcess formed on her side, which caused
her intolerable pain, so that unable to rest in her bed, she was
moved from one to another. On the vigil of S. John the
Baptist's Day, her father was sitting near the poor child,
*-
*
April 14.] .S 1 . Lidwyna. 191
attempting to comfort her, when she sprang out of bed, and
threw her arms round his neck. The violence of the action
ruptured the imposthume, which remained ever after an open
sore. She was consumed by an internal fever, which
parched her throat, so that she constant^ craved for water.
Her kinsman Gerlach says, that she would writhe like a
worm along the floor towards the door, and out to the
stagnant ditch that surrounded the paddock, for a draught,
and at other times would go to the cauldron on the fire.
For some while she moved about with crutches, or pushed
herself along with a stool, but finally lost altogether the use
of her lower limbs. Then she took to her bed, from which
she did not rise for thirty-three years. Little that she ate
would remain on her stomach, except " a small quantity of
sugar, cinnamon, dates, and raisins." 1 She drank of the
water of the Maas. 2 But after a few years she ate and
drank scarcely anything " nutto fenitus dbo corporali utebatur
vel potu? says Gerlach, who ministered to her, but Brug-
mann has improved this into her eating and drinking
" nothing-at-all" for many years. Her bones, from long
lying in bed, broke her skin, and she became a mass of
wounds, so that to move her in bed her nurses were obliged
to pass a towel under her shoulders. To add to her suffer-
ings, she was now attacked with that marsh-ague which is
the scourge of the Low Countries. This came on her at
the age of seventeen, first a burning heat and then an icy
chill, which made her shiver in bed, whilst a cold perspira-
tion dripped from her brow. It recurred every three days
and lasted for half-a-year at a time.
If any one is interested in the horrible details of her
1 Sumebat modicum zucarae vel cynnamoni aut dactylorum sive rauscatae.
8 Brugmann appends the foolish remark, ** So greatly in favour was she with the
Lord, that she was enabled to distinguish by taste the water of the Maas when the
tide was up from that when it was down ; for it is a tidal river," and very near the
sea, the tide rises there eight feet
*-
1 92 Lives of the Scants.
sores, the plasters applied to them, and the worms that
bred in them, let him read the ample and disgusting details
given by Brugmann and Gerlach. They cannot be inserted
here ; only, let the reader remember, as he shudders over
the particulars recorded with Dutch exactness, and also
with Dutch coarseness, that if it is revolting to read such
things, it must have been far worse to have endured them. 1
An amusing story is told by Brugmann. Just before
Lent the curate of Schiedam, Andrew, a Norbertine canon,
had killed five or six fat capons, as he had invited the
magistrates of the town to dine with him. Soon after, he
went to the house of Lidwyna to confess her, when she
begged him to let her have the fat of one of his capons to
make a plaster of. The curate, a little taken aback, replied
that he feared there was not enough on all of them for
making the desired plaster. But this was an excuse;
really, he did not want to cut up his capons for the extrac-
tion of the grease, till his dinner came off. " Then you
will not give me the fat!" said Lidwyna. The curate re-
peated his excuse. " Well, I hope the mice will eat your
chickens," said the sick girl. And it was so ; that night
the rats and mice invaded parson Andrew's larder, and
sadly maltreated the poultry prepared for the dinner next
day. Now Master Andrew had in his parsonage garden a
fine tree of mazards (fomce qu& dicuntur meteers), and
Lidwyna had heard that slices of apples were a good thing
1 Some particulars are curious, her plasters were made of honey and a paste of
wheat, flour, sometimes of cream and the fat of eels mixed with the charcoal made
of the meat of a very old cow, reduced to a condition of cinder. Here is a specimen
of the sort of details into which Gerlach and Brugmann delight to enter, "Ex
vehementia infirmitatum suarum particulatim evomuit pulmonem et hepar cum
pluribus intestinis, absque tamen ullo fcetore j imo quicunque ea manibus attrec-
tasset,adeo suaviter manus ej us fere per diem redolebant, quasi species aromaticas
tetigisset sicut multi eo tempore experti sunt;" and again, "Quando emplastra
propter mutationem auferebantur, remanebant in eis pauci vermes grisei, cum nigris
capitibus, longitudinem fere unguis humani digiti habentes ; nee emittebant haec
emplastra vel vermes aliquem foetorem, sed magnam potius suavitatem."
*
April i 4 .] S. Lidwyna. 193
to place upon bad sores. So she sent to the curate to ask
for some of his precious mazards. " Let her have them by
all means," answered Father Andrew, " or I shall have them
all eaten up by the rats."
It greatly distressed her in the first years of her illness
that she was subject to drowsiness, which prevented her
from attending to the offices of religion. "Like other folk,"
says Brugmann, "she was more troubled with drowsiness at
the time of Divine Service than at any other time." Her
confessor recommended her not to resist, knowing her need
of sleep, but to doze off whenever she felt so disposed.
However, having struggled energetically against this
temptation, one Easter Day, at the time of High Mass in
the church, at which she desired to assist in spirit, she was
never after troubled therewith.
Another of her afflictions was headache, and intense
toothache; a sort of cancer formed on her face, on her
lower lip and chin, and she lost completely the sight of her
right eye, whilst the left eye became so weak that she was
unable to bear the light
In the year 1404 her mother died. Some Third Order
Sisters seem to have been kind to her, for we read of linen
skirts they made for her, adapted to her position in bed,
and the necessities of her wounds. After her mother's
death she was obliged to give up her feather-bed, because
the canvass was worn through, and the feathers stuck to
her sores, and to lie on a straw mattress or on one of birch
bark. The winter was bitterly cold ; it was one of unusual
severity; the poor cottage could not keep out the frost, and
the fire was too far from her bed to warm her, so that she
was often blue with cold, and her tears were found frozen
on her cheeks.
William, count of Holland, and the countess Margaret,
when on a visit to Schiedam, sent their physician to examine
VOL. iv. 13
194 Lives of the Saints. [A P nu 4 .
the invalid, and promised her an annuity of twelve crowns.
One night she was in great peril, for her father having gone
out on his nightly rounds, her brother put the candle in a
corner above the bed, and then either went out or fell
asleep. The candle dropped on the mattress, set it on fire,
and the flames communicated themselves to the pillow;
Lidwyna, making a great effort, beat out the fire with her
hands, and was providentially uninjured.
The annuity of count William, and old age, caused
Peter, the father of Lidwyna, to surrender his office of
watchman to his son. But the old habit of going forth at
night could not be abandoned at once, and he was wont to
visit the churches on vigils. One evening he met a man
whom he knew slightly, who persuaded him to walk with
him outside the town, as there was abundance of time
before vespers were sung. They walked on the dam till
they came to a lone spot, where the fellow suddenly at-
tacked him, flung him into the ditch, and ran away. Peter
would have been drowned had not a wagoner passed that
way, who helped the old man out of the water and laid him
in his cart. Rumour, of course, magnified the event, and
kind female neighbours rushed into Lidwyna before his
arrival, to assure her that her father had been drowned, and
that his dead body was being brought home. The fellow
who had done this deed was charged by the old watchman
with the crime ; but as he protested his innocence, Peter
concluded that he had been attacked by the devil in the
form of his acquaintance, and Brugmann is pleased to share
his conviction. It is hardly necessary to add that the shock
nearly killed his daughter.
The insufferable monotony of her life in the dark, with
close drawn blinds and bed-curtains, varied only by her
aches and pains, was now broken and brightened by plea-
sant dreams. How far these visions were sent from God
S. Lidwyna. 195
to soothe the sick-bed of His dear child, and how far they
were the natural result of sickness affecting her brain, it is
not for us to decide here. She became sensible of the
presence of her guardian angel, and was borne by him in
spirit to bright celestial regions ; sometimes he led her to
the church where she had knelt when she returned from
taking her brothers their dinners ; sometimes she assisted,
invisibly, at High Mass, and heard the organ roll, and saw
the priest and sacred ministers in their glittering vestments,
and the smoke of incense ascend to the vault At other
times she stood with her angel, hand in hand, knee-deep in
a grassy meadow full of lilies, and was ravished with the
beauty of the flowers. Pleasant dreams for the sick head,
to cheer the aching heart, in the little dark room.
In 1428, an awful conflagration burst forth in Schiedam,
which consumed the greater part of the town. The rela-
tives of Lidwyna removed the valuables from her house,
and held themselves in readiness to carry her away in her
bed should the flames reach her house. But providentially
they expired, or were got under, before this became neces-
sary. Lidwyna had possessed a cane with which to thrust
aside the curtains, and tap on the floor when she needed
assistance. In the confusion consequent on the fire the
cane was lost But on the night of July 2 3rd, she was
suffering intensely from the heat, and groped about with
her hand, forgetting that her cane was lost, that she might
push the curtains open to allow a breath of air to enter.
Then her hand encountered a stick, and she exclaimed,
"Nu byn ik wel bekust!" "Now I am well cudgelled," that
is, provided with a cudgel, for the stick was rough, heavy,
and not straight Next morning she asked her confessor to
take it to a carpenter and get it planed into shape for her.
He did so, and finding a carpenter who had lost nearly all
his tools in the fire, asked him to smooth and polish it for
*
1 96 Lives of the Saints.
him. The man began to plane it, and exclaimed at the
beauty and fragrance of the wood. The curate and he
examined it ? and it seemed to them to be a bough of cedar.
Then the priest took it to a better carpenter, who also
admired the wood, and when he had shaped it into a rod,
told the curate to ascertain whence it had come. The
confessor asked the girl, but she was unable to say more
than that she had found it in her bed; but one night,
shortly after, she dreamt that her angel took her to Para-
dise, and there she saw a cedar tree by the side of a limpid
river, and he pointed to a broken bough, and smiled.
Then she knew that he had brought it to her from Paradise.
On another occasion, after a long trance, in which she
seemed to be in the heavenly Eden, on returning to herself,
she put her hand above her head and found a wreath of
blue and red flowers on her pillow ; she remained holding
this till very early in the morning, when she sent for the
curate, and bade him take it to the church, and place it on
the head of the image of the B. Virgin, above the high
altar.
A most painful occurrence took place not long after this.
In 1425, Philip of Burgundy entered Holland to claim the
allegiance of the cities. He was followed by a body of
Picardy mercenaries, men who feared neither God nor man.
Some of these fellows, surgeons of the duke, being quartered
in Schiedam, went to the curate and asked him to let them
see the suffering damsel. He unsuspiciously conducted
them to her house, when they burst into her dark room,
tore aside the curtains, and held a candle to her face,
saying they wanted to admire the features of the parson's
favourite. Then they threw off her bed-clothes and pro-
ceeded to strip off her night-shirt, when Petronilla, the
niece of Lidwyna, a girl of seventeen, threw herself between
the ruffians and her aunt; but they flung her aside with
S. Lidwyna. 197
such violence that she fell over a stool before the sick-room
altar, and so injured her leg that she limped ever after.
After rude jests about the dropsical condition of Lidwyna,
the miscreants went away. The duke, on hearing of the
outrage, offered to punish the guilty parties, but Lidwyna
refused to give evidence towards their identification and
conviction. Her father and Petronilla died the same year,
and Lidwyna felt their loss acutely, especially that of the
young girl, to whom she was warmly attached.
Another of her afflictions was caused by the conduct of
the curate, Andrew of Marienward, who regarded her as
demented, and would not listen with patience to her visions
and prophecies. On one occasion she showed him a wafer
which she assured him had descended to her from heaven,
and requested him to communicate her with it But he
very discreetly answered, " If you want to communicate, I
will go to the church and bring you a Host from the altar,
which I know is consecrated. As for this one, I know
nothing at all about it." Next morning at mass he re-
quested the congregation to pray for a poor girl who had
gone crazed and was tempted by the devil. Then taking
the venerable Sacrament, he went towards her cottage to
communicate her, but on his way back, a crowd of zealots
had assembled, who were most indignant at his having
thought Lidwyna a prey to illusions, and he had to take
refuge from them in the cemetery. The magistrates hearing
of the disturbance came to him to know the rights of the
matter, and the poor curate, in alarm, told a lie; he said that
he had tested the miraculous host by putting it in the fire,
and that it had been burnt When this was told the mob,
a shout of indignation arose, and the frightened curate then
pretended that he had thrown it into the water. But as the
mob grew more uproarious and threatening, the magistrates
turned to Matthias, suffragan bishop of Utrecht, and Dr.
9 - *
198 Lives of the Saints.
John de Clerh, provisor of Scheldtland, who was then in
the town, and they conducted the curate "crying much"
between them, followed by the hooting mob, to the house
of Lidwyna, when the truth came out, and Lidwyna was
able to tell her marvellous tale. She implored that the
curate might be leniently dealt with, and the bishop and
provisor, having pacified the multitude, Andrew was allowed
to return home.
The death of Lidwyna took place in 1433. She had
been gradually becoming worse, and was very sick. A
little boy held a basin for her. After a violent attack of
vomiting, she groaned forth, "Oh, my dear lad, I wish
master knew how I suffer." She alluded to her confessor,
John Walter of Leyden. The boy asked her if he was to
call the priest; but she being again sick, and unable to
bring up the phlegm, began to choke. The boy frightened,
and thinking she was about to die, ran away crying, and
summoned the priest and the servants. When they arrived
she was dying. Then the confessor, taking her hand, asked
her to give him a sign if she were alive and heard him.
As she made no response, he held a lantern to her face,
and saw that she was dead.
She was buried at Schiedam in the parish church of S.
John the Baptist, but the archduke Albert of Austria re-
moved the body in 1616 to Brussels.
S. BENET OF THE BRIDGE.
(A.D. 1184.)
IT is related of this saint that he received instructions
from an angel to construct a stone bridge over the Rhone
against Avignon, in order to put an end to the numerous
accidents which had occurred at this dangerous point. He
is represented in art carrying an enormous stone upon his
shoulder.
^ --
S. B15NET OF THE BRIDGE. After Cahier.
April 14.
Apm xi.j ^ Maro, Eutyches, &c. 199
April 15.
SS. BASILISSA AND ANASTASIA, MM. at Rome, circ. A.D. 66.
SS- M\RO, EUTYCHES, AND VicToRiNUS, MM. in Italy, end of ist cent.
SS. OLYMPIAS AND MAXIMUS, MM. in Persia, A.D. a$i.
S. CRESCENS, M. a; Myra.
S. PADARN, 5. of Pannes, A.D. $60.
S. RUADAN, wfd. ofLothra, in Ireland, 6th cent.
S. SYLVESTER, Ab. of Reome, circ. A.D. $7$.
S. MUNDUS, Ab. in Argyle, ioth cent.
8. PETER Go NZ ALES, O.P. at fvy in Spain, A.D. 1940.
SS. MARO, EUTYCHES AND VICTORINUS, MM.
(END OF IST CENT.)
[Usuardus and Ado give S. Victorinus on Sept. 5th. But at Riete,
S. Maro and his Companions on April isth ; S. Maro is mentioned on this
day in the so-called Martyrology of S. Jerome. The Modem Roman
Martyrology puts all these together. Authority : The Apocryphal Acts
of SS. Nereus and Achilles, (May i2th,)]
IAINTS MARO, EUTYCHES, AND vic-
' TORINUS were exiled for the faith to the
island of Ponza, with the blessed Flavia Domi-
tilla, but were afterwards released by the em-
peror Nerva; but in the persecution of Trajan they
suffered under the judge Valerian in different places, in
different ways, and on different days. S. Victorinus was
suspended in the sulphurous exhalations from Lake Cotylia,
near Antrodoco in the Abruzzi. S. Maro was crushed
under a heavy stone at Amiternum, or Teramo. Eutyches
was killed with the sword
* :
2OO Lives of the Saints.
SS. OLYMPIAS AND MAXIMUS, MM.
(A.D. 251.)
[Hrabanus, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, and Modern Roman Martyrology.
Authority : The Acts of S. Laurence, (Aug. ioth.)]
THE emperor Decius having made himself master of
several provinces of Persia, persecuted the Christians there-
in. Of the numbers were Olympias and Maximus, nobles
of Corduena, who were brought before the emperor and
cudgelled. The emperor, desirous of obtaining their
wealth, asked them where it was. " Here," answered the
martyrs, "these limbs are our treasures. Take them,
break, spoil, hack, or burn them, that we may inherit
eternal riches in recompence from the Lord." After having
exposed them to various torments, without being able to
shake their constancy, he sent them to his officer, Vitellius
Anisius, to be despatched. They were beaten on the
head with crow-bars, and so gained their crown.
The relics of these saints are said to be preserved in the
church of S. Malo, in Brittany, and also at Liege. In Art
they are represented with crow-bars.
S. PADARN, B. OF VANNES.
(ABOUT A.D. 560.)
[Anglican Martyrologies of Porter and Wytford and AJford. Venerated
on this day anciently in Wales and in Brittany. Authorities : A life by
John of Tynemouth, (d. circ. 1360) ; a Latin metrical life by John, son of
Sulgen, who was B. of S. David's, hi 1070, and mention by Venantius
Fortunatus, a contemporary.]
PADARN, PEDRWN, OR PATERNUS, as he is called in Latin,
was the son of Pedrwn, and Gwen, his wife, at Emyr Llydaw,
in Brittany. Padarn, his father, went to Ireland, where he
became a monk, leaving the charge of the child to his wife.
-*
*
AprH x$.] S. Padarn. 201
When the little Padarn asked his mother whether he had a
father alive, she answered weeping, " Yes, my child, but he
lives to God and not to the world." In the year 516,
according to Usher, though no ancient authority is given
for this date, Padarn came to Britain. According to
Achau y Saint, Padarn, after his arrival in Wales, became a
member of the college of S. Iltut (Illtyd.) He afterwards
established a religious society, consisting of a hundred and
twenty members, 1 at a place in Cardiganshire, called since
Llanbadarn Fawr, where he also founded an episcopal see,
of which he became the first bishop. How long Llanba-
darn continued to be the capital of a bishopric cannot be
ascertained, as very little is known of its history, and the
last notice of it, under that character, in the Welsh chroni-
cles, is in the year 720. It is reported, however, to have
lost its privileges through the turbulent conduct of its
inhabitants, who killed their bishop, and the diocese was in
consequence annexed to that of Menevia. From the Latin
hexameters of Johannes Sulgenus, it may be learned that
Padarn presided over the see twenty-one yeats, during-
which time he spent his life in prayer, tears, fasting,
hospitality, and attendance on the .sick; and the Triads
assert that he went about the country preaching the faith
in Christ without pay or reward to all ran^s of people, for
which reason he was counted one of " the blessed visitors "
to the isle of Britain. It is mentioned by John of Tyne-
mouth, that he built monasteries and churches throughout
the whole region of Ceretica; and that he rebuked Maelgwn
Gwynedd, from whom he had received certain injuries in
an excursion of that prince into South Wales ; but no other
incidents of the time spent at Llanbadarn are recorded,
upon the truth of which any reliance may be placed.
1 John of Tynemovith differs from the Welsh accounts, in saying that this insti-
tution contained 849 monks, who came with S. Paternus from Armorica, or
Brittany.
: *
2O2 Lives of the Saints.
At the expiration of the twenty-one years he returned to
his native country, where he was made bishop of Vannes.
A dissension, however, broke out between him and the
other American bishops ; upon which a synod was con-
vened, and a reconciliation effected. Notwithstanding this,
he continued to dread their hostility, and retired to the
Franks, among whom he remained to the close of his life.
He subscribed the decrees of the Council of Paris held in
557, and is commended both as an abbot and a bishop in
the writings of Venantius Fortunatus, a Latin poet of Gaul,
who was his contemporary.
S. RUADAN, AB. OF LOTHRA.
(6TH. CENT.)
[Irish Martyrologies, as that of Tallaght ; Canisius in his German
Martyrology. Authority : a Latin life written probably in the iath
century. Papebroeck, the Bollandist, says dryly of this life, "The
written monuments of this date are all more or less mixed up with fable,
and one of these fables, we have here omitted, lest it should cause scandal." j
THE marvellous history of this saint, which even the
Bollandists declined to publish entire, so full is it of
absurdities, may be condensed into a few lines. Ruadan
was born early in the 6th century, and as his life was not
written for six hundred years after, there was ample time
allowed for the accumulation of fable, and the obscuration
of fact. He studied under S. Finnian of Clonard, and was
reckoned among his chief disciples. He was abbot of
Lothra (Lorah) in the barony of Lower Ormond, in Tippe-
rary, before the death of Kieran of Saigher, and had
probably founded it about the year 550.
King Dermot, son of Kervail, had made peace in all
Ireland. One of his heralds, Mac-Lomm by name, being
in Connaught, near Tuam, requiring the nobles to open
* *
Ruadan. 203
their castles to him in the king's name, entered them with
his spear transversely in his mouth, as an insult, which seems
to have been symbolical of placing a bit in the mouths of
the princes. One of these, Odo, in a fury, killed the
herald, and then, fearing the wrath of the king, fled to
bishop Senach, in Muskerry ; as Senach was the son of his
mother's sister. The bishop sent him for greater security
to S. Ruadan, who concealed him in an underground
cellar beneath his hut, and set a stool over the place.
King Dermot having heard that the man was there, came
to Lothra, and went in and seating himself, asked Ruadan
where Odo was. He knew that Ruadan would not tell a
lie, the saint, shrugging his shoulders, said, " Unless he is
under your chair, I cannot tell." Then the king went
away. But he had not gone far before it struck him that
the words of the old man might have had a deeper meaning
than he had first given to them, so returning to the cell, he
removed the stool, found the trap-door, and discovered
Odo, whom he dragged from his hiding-place, and carried
away, pursued by Ruadan and all his monks.
On reaching Temorah, or Tarah, the capital, the king
threw his prisoner into chains, and entered his castle to
feast ; but Ruadan rang his bell, and his monks drew up in
the square, and chanted psalms. Dermot took no notice
of them next day, but on the second night he dreamt that
he saw a great tree chopped down, and when he woke at
the crush of its fall, he heard the burst of psalmody under
the starry sky before his hall. Thinking that his dream
was ominous, he issued forth, and then ensued a truly
Hibernian scene of mutual recrimination.
K. Dermot. " Your community will go to pieces,
monk \"
S. Ruadan. " I will see your kingdom at an end first,
sirel and none of your sons to sit on your throne after you."
*
204 Lives of the Saints. [April i$.
K. Dermot. " May your place be vacant, and a sow
root it up with its snout"
S. Ruadan, " May Temora, your city, be desolated
many hundred years before that, and without an inhabitant
for ever."
K. Dermot " May your body be polluted, and one of
your members perish, and your eye be blinded, that you
see not the light"
S. Ruadan. "Sure, and may your enemies wring your
neck for you, and pull off every leg and limb first"
K. Dermot "May a wild boar root your steeple up,
(pyramidem tuam perfodiet)"
S. Ruadan. " May that leg of yours, stuck up in front
of me (femur tuum quod ante me elevatum est) never see
the grave, and the like to all your body ; and may a man
spade sheep-dung over it"
K. Dermot "You are a protector and fautor of lawless-
ness, but I endeavour to keep order in the country. You
and the like of you are the confusion of my kingdom.
However, as you are the elect of God, go your way, and
take the man with you, but pay me his price."
Here follows a piece of true Keltic folk-lore. From out
of the sea rose thirty sea-green horses, which galloped to
Temora, and Ruadan presented them to the king who
gained a race with one of them. But after a while the
green sea-horses returned to their native element 1
i See similar stories of sea horses in Crofton Crocker's Irish Tales.
-*
B. PETER GONZALEZ or ELMO. After Cahier. April 15.
April i$.] 2?. Peter Gonzalez. 205
B. PETER GONZALEZ, OR ELMO, O.P.
(A.D. 1240.)
[Beatified by Pope Innocent IV., in 1254. In the sea-sports of Spain
his festival is celebrated on the Tuesday after Low Sunday, " Quasimodo,"
with great solemnity, and his image is greatly venerated at Lisbon, and in
Biscay, under the name of S. Elmo. Pope Benedict XIV. approved of
his veneration with special office in the whole Order of S. Dominic.
Authority : A life by Stephen Sampaye, O.P.]
PETER GONZALEZ was born in the town of Astorga, in
Spain, in 1190. He was educated by his maternal uncle
the bishop of that place, who invested him with a canonry,
and then with the deanery in his cathedral, whilst quite a
young man.
Full of pride at obtaining the deanery, for which a special
bull had been procured, as he was under age, he deter-
mined to be installed with great pomp. For the purpose
of making his solemn entry into Astorga for that ceremony,
he chose Christmas Day, when the streets were sure to be
thronged. He traversed the town on a handsome horse,
splendidly caparisoned,, but his steed kicked him off into a
dungheap, amidst the shouts of laughter of the spectators.
His first sentiment on picking himself up was one of shame,
but the next was compunction for his vanity and pride, and
he exclaimed, half petulant and half contrite, "If the
world moc'ks me, I will mock it in turn. 7 ' He at once
entered the Dominican Order, and became remarkable for
his humility, zeal for souls, and contempt of human
applause.
The fame of his sanctity having spread through Spain,
King Ferdinard III. sent for him to his court, where he at
once set himself to reform its licence. Some of the young
nobles at the court, whose dissolute morals he had rebuked,
were resolved to corrupt him. They therefore hired a cour-
tesan of great attractions to seduce him. She pretend ed
i . _ g
206 Lives of the Saints. tApm ,$.
that she desired to consult him privately on matters of
importance, and begged for an interview. Peter Gonzalez
unsuspiciously yielded, and when they were alone, after a
pretended confession of her sins, she used all her blandish-
ments to inflame his passion. Gonzalez, the moment he
perceived her object, rose and retired to the adjoining
room, where, wrapping his black cloak about him, he flung
himself into the fire that burned on the hearth, and called
her to take her place beside him. The instigators of the
wretched woman, who had been lying concealed, and
watching, now full of compunction and shame, cast them-
selves at his feet. Gonzalez accompanied king Ferdinand
in all his expeditions against the Moors. The taking of
Cordova, in 1236, was an occasion for him to exercise all
his influence and authority to moderate the violence of
the conquerors, to save the innocence of the virgins from
the insolence of the soldiers, and to save much blood from
being shed. He purified the mosques and converted them
into churches.
Having quitted the court, as soon as he deemed his
presence less necessary, he went among the poor, impelled
by a burning zeal for souls, to evangelize them. The wild-
est mountains, the most inaccessible vallies, the ignorance
and brutality of the peasants, were no obstacles to his
fervour j and the Word of God preached by him produced
marvellous effects. Then he went to seaports, and on
board ships, to preach to the sailors, for whom he had a
great predilection. By a curious but not uncommon
confusion, all that is related of S. Gonsalvo, and his bridge-
building, (Jan. loth), has been transferred to Peter
Gonzalez, by his late biographer. At last, knowing that
the time of his departure was at hand, he retired to Tuy to
spend Lent He preached every day in the cathedral with
extraordinary fervour, but this was his last labour of love,
*
*
April i$.] JB. Peter Gonzales. 207
he died on the Tuesday after Low Sunday at Tuy ; and
was buried in the cathedral.
In art he appears in the habit of his Order holding a
blue candle ; this has reference to the blue electric light
that appears on mast-heads in storms, and which Spanish
and Portugese sailors call S. Elmo's light, and suppose to
be sent them by S. Peter Gonzalez, or Elmo, as a token
that the vessel is under his protection, and will not perish.
The name S. Elmo attaches to him by mistake. Apparently
either S. Anselm of Lucca, (March i8th), or S. Erasmus
(June 2), each of which names is contracted into S. Elmo,
was more anciently the patron of the Mediterranean sailors,
and the lights on the mast-heads were called after one or
other of them. But by degrees their place in the popular
devotion of the Spanish sailors was usurped by S. Peter
Gonzalez, and the name of the former saints was attached to
the more modern one, the older saints falling into oblivion.
In reference to the blue light, or blue candle he holds in
pictorial representations, in procession of the confraternities
of S. Elmo, in Spain, blue wax candles are carried.
-*
* --
Lives of the Saints. [Apriu 4 .
the invalid, and promised her an annuity of twelve crowns.
One night she was in great peril, for her father having gone
out on his nightly rounds, her brother put the candle in a
corner above the bed, and then either went out or fell
asleep. The candle dropped on the mattress, set it on fire,
and the flames communicated themselves to the pillow;
Lidwyna, making a great effort, beat out the fire with her
hands, and was providentially uninjured
The annuity of count William, and old age, caused
Peter, the father of Lidwyna, to surrender his office of
watchman to his son. But the old habit of going forth at
night could not be abandoned at once, and he was wont to
visit the churches on vigils. One evening he met a man
whom he knew slightly, who persuaded him to walk with
him outside the town, as there was abundance of time
before vespers were sung. They walked on the dam till
they came to a lone spot, where the fellow suddenly at-
tacked him, flung him into the ditch, and ran away. Peter
would have been drowned had not a wagoner passed that
way, who helped the old man out of the water and laid him
in his cart. Rumour, of course, magnified the event, and
kind female neighbours rushed into Lidwyna before his
arrival, to assure her that her father had been drowned, and
that his dead body was being brought home. The fellow
who had done this deed was charged by the old watchman
with the crime ; but as he protested his innocence, Peter
concluded that he had been attacked by the devil in the
form of his acquaintance, and Brugmann is pleased to share
his conviction. It is hardly necessary to add that the shock
nearly killed his daughter.
The insufferable monotony of her life in the dark, with
close drawn blinds and bed-curtains, varied only by her
aches and pains, was now broken and brightened by plea-
sant dreams. How far these visions were sent from God
April 13.] B. Peter Gonzales. 207
he died on the Tuesday after Low Sunday at Tuy ; and
was buried in the cathedral.
In art he appears in the habit of his Order holding a
blue candle ; this has reference to the blue electric light
that appears on mast-heads in storms, and which Spanish
and Portugese sailors call S. Elmo's light, and suppose to
be sent them by S. Peter Gonzalez, or Elmo, as a token
that the vessel is under his protection, and will not perish.
The name S. Elmo attaches to him by mistake. Apparently
either S. Anselm of Lucca, (March i8th), or S. Erasmus
(June 2), each of which names is contracted into S. Elmo,
was more anciently the patron of the Mediterranean sailors,
and the lights on the mast-heads were called after one or
other of them. But by degrees their place in the popular
devotion of the Spanish sailors was usurped by S. Peter
Gonzalez, and the name of the former saints was attached to
the more modern one, the older saints falling into oblivion.
In reference to the blue light, or blue candle he holds in
pictorial representations, in procession of the confraternities
of S. Elmo, in Spain, blue wax candles are carried.
*
2d8 Lives of the Saints. [A P ru *6.
April 16.
SS. CALLISTOS, CHARISIUS, AMD COMP., MM. at Corinth, yd, cent.
SS. OPTATUS, LUPERCUS, AND COMP., at Saragosta, A.D. 303.
S. BNCRATIA, P.M. at Saragosra, A.. 34-
SS. CAIUS AND CREMENTIUS, CC. at Saragassa, A.D. 304.
S. LAMBERT THE HUSBANDMAN, Jf. at Saragassa.
S. TURIBIUS, B. of Astorga, circ. A.D. 460.
S. VASIUS, M. at Saintes, in Prance t circ. A.D. $00.
S. PATERNUS, B. of Avranches, A.D. $62.
S. SCULBILIUS, Mk. of Jouin~de-Marne, in Poitou, circ. A.D. $6$.
S. FRUCTUOSUS, B. of Braga, in Portugal, A.D. 66$.
S. MAGNUS, Count of Orkney, M., A.D. mo.
S. DROOO, H. at Sebovrg, in France, A.D. 1186.
5. CONTARDI THE PILGRIM, at Brona, in Lombardy, A.D. 1249.
6. BENEDICT-JOSEPH LABRE, at Amettes, in Artois t 1783.
SS. MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA.
(A.D. 304.)
[Ado, Notker, Roman Martyrology ; Spanish and Portugese Martyr-
ologies. Authorities : A hymn of Prudentius, and the Acts.]
, the Christian poet of Saragossa,
b - 338, d circ. 406), has left us a long hymn
describing the passion of these glorious martyrs,
still fresh in the memory of the citizens of his
native town. S. Optatus, and seventeen other stalwart
soldiers of Jesus Christ, received the crown of martyrdom
on the same day, in the persecution of Diocletian,, under
the cruel governor Dacian. Two others, Caius and
Crementius, died of their torments after a second exami-
nation. The blessed Encratia was another victim of the
same magistrate. She was most barbarously tortured by
his orders her sides were lacerated with iron hooks, and
one of her breasts was then cut off, and then part of her
liver was torn out She was then sent back to prison,
*
)J( .
April 16.] 6V?. Martyrs of Saragossa. 209
where her wounds mortified and she died. The relics of
these martyrs are supposed to have been found at Sara-
gossa in 1389.
Another Saragossian martyr commemorated this day is
S. Lambert. Of him Tamayus Salazar says, in his Spanish
Martyrology, " Lest there should be too much joy through
so many festivals on one day, the Church with circum-
spection has separated them, and transferred the feast of S.
Lambert to June ipth." And Papebroeck, the Bollandist,
adds, "Prudently and circumspectly indeed, but we very
much doubt whether the compilers of the Breviary published
in 1573 used the same prudence and circumspection, when,
confusing times and events, they compiled the lessons for
this saint, to be recited in the divine offices, partly from
then* own conjectures, partly from the uncertain tales of
the vulgar, and partly from pictures and sculptures ill
understood. "
S. Lambert is said to have been the husbandman of a
well-to-do farmer, near Saragossa, at the time of the same
persecution. His master having got into an altercation
with him, whilst he was ploughing, insisted on his at once
adoring the gods, and when the labourer refused, saying he
was a Christian, his master struck him with the plough-
share and killed him. There seems, however, every reason
to believe that Lambert suffered much later, under a Moor-
ish master, for his name, of Teutonic origin, is evidence
against the antiquity attributed to his martyrdom. He is
represented in art with his head in his hands.
VOL. iv. 14
*
2io Lives of the Saints. [Apriue.
S. TURIBIUS, B. OF ASTORGA.
(ABOUT A.D. 460.)
[Roman and Spanish. Martyrologies. Authorities : Mention in the
letters of S. Leo the Great, &c.]
S. TURIBIUS opposed the Priscillianist heretics -} he had
the misfortune to succeed in the see of Astorga a prelate,
Dictinius, who had fallen into that heresy. S. Leo ad-
dressed to him a long letter on the errors of the Priscil-
lianists.
S. VASIUS, M.
(ABOUT A.D. 500.)
[Venerated at Saintes on this day. Authority : The Lections in the
Saintes Breviary, and the Ancient Acts, which, though written much later,
seem to be fairly trustworthy.]
THERE was a young man of great landed possessions at
Saintes, in the rich vine-clad Saintonage, now so famous for
the manufacture of cognac. Saintes is a picturesque old
city, with the remains of a Roman ampitheatre, and two
magnificent churches. It is a city which has produced
many saints. It contains the shrine of S. Eutropius.
S. Vasius having heard the words of the apostle, " Love
not the world, neither the things of the world, for he that
loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him,"
took it to heart, and spent his large income in relieving the
necessities of the poor. His nearest kinsman, Proculus,
viewed this with an evil eye, as Vasius was unmarried, and
he hoped that his son Nauman would inherit the land and
wealth of Vasius. The continued liberality of the young
man so exasperated his uncle, that he seized some of the
i See Life of S. Leo, April nth.
April 16.3 ,5*6". Fructuosus & Magnus. 2 1 1
lands of his nephew ; and Vasius was obliged to appeal for
protection against him to Alaric, the Gothic king. This so
enraged Proculus and his son that they fell on Vasius and
killed him. The place of his burial was afterwards turned
into a priory, which took his name, and is called S. Vaize,
on the right bank of the Charente.
S. FRUCTUOSUS, B. OF BRAGA.
(ABOUT A.D. 665.)
[Roman and Spanish Martyrologies. Authority : A life by a contem-
porary.]
S. FRUCTUOSUS descended from the Visigothic kings. All
his goods he gave to churches and the poor except what he
required for the foundation of the monastery of Compulta,
between Galicia and the mountains of Le'on. After having
given a rule to this house, he retired into the wilderness,
and lived in great privations. He was first ordained bishop
of Duma, but in 656 he was translated by the fathers of the
loth Council of Toledo, to the archiepiscopal see of Braga.
S. MAGNUS, M.
(A.D. 1 1 10.)
[Aberdeen Breviary. The Saga of S. Magnus says he died on the
second day after the feast of SS. Tiburtius and Valerian, (April i4th), and
three weeks after the Annunciation ; the Scandinavian Kalendar in the
Fasti Danici of Olaus Wormius, Hafn. 1643, gives S. Magnus on Aug.
igth. The Orkneyinga Saga says that he died two days after the feast of
S. Tiburtius. As there is a S. Tiburtius commemorated in the Roman
and Scandinavian Kalendars on Aug. nth, this may possibly have given
occasion to the mistake, the igth being taken as the day of the burial, the
i3th as that of his martyrdom. But there is a S. Magnus, B. of Avignon,
and another of the same name Bishop of Anagni, commemorated on Aug.
19, in the Roman Martyrology, and either of these may be intended.
212 Lives of the Scants.
Authorities : The perfectly authentic Magnus Helga Saga, and the
Orkneyinga Saga ; Hafnise, 1730. The Orkneyinga Saga was written in
the middle of the isth cent. The Magnus Helga Saga was not written till
i4th cent., for it carries down the history till then, but the substance is
much earlier; it follows a certain Rodbert, (c. 6), whom it quotes, and
who wrote in 1130; Rodbert quotes the narration of a man who was
present at the murder of S. Magnus, and related the particulars to the
writer. This Rodbert seems to have been a monk. Both the Orkneyinga
Saga and the Magnus Helga Saga are borne out in all the principal
historical facts by the Heimskringla. The Orkneyinga Saga condenses
the account of the Magnus Helga Saga, giving the history in the same
words. Alban Butler, relying probably on David Camenarius, calls
S. Magnus a "zealous bishop," and makes him, when he is brought forth
to martyrdom, express his readiness to die for his flock. 1 This is an
absurd mistake, which the Bollandists did not fall into, though they had
not the two Icelandic Sagas above mentioned. S. Magnus was neither a
bishop, nor a priest, nor even in minor orders. 2 ]
IN the reign of Sigurd Hardrada, king of Norway, there
were two earls of Orkney, brothers, Paul and Erlendr, sons
of earl Thorfin, the son of earl Sigurd, who with all his
people had been Christianized by king Olaf Tryggveson.
Earl Erlendr married Thora, daughter of Sumarlid, and the
wife of earl Paul was the daughter of earl Hako and
Ragnhilda, the daughter of king Magnus the Good. Erlendr
and Thora had two sons, Magnus and Erlingr, and Paul
had one son, Hako. On the strength of the royal blood
that flowed in his veins, Hako claimed a supremacy over
his cousins, which they and their father werre unwilling to
admit. Contention broke out, some in Orkney siding
with Hako, and some with the sons of Erlendr, and this
obliged the earls to send him away to Norway to king Olaf
the Quiet With him he did not long remain, and he
sought the court of Ingi Steinkielson, king of Sweden,
* The blunders made about S. Magnus are astonishing. The Aberdeen Breviary
calls him the " Apostle of the Orkneys," and Molanus makes him a martyr in
Dacia, which statement Galesinius and Ferrarius correct into Denmark.
*The date is wrong both in the Bollandists, who give no5, and in Butler, who
gives 1104.
*
April i6.] Magnus. 213
where a field was opened for the exercise of his turbulent
spirit in hunting out the followers of the old Thor and
Odin worship. "For," says the chronicler, "king Ingi
was a good Christian, and did his utmost to root out those
men who followed heathenism."
When Magnus Bare-foot came to the throne of Norway,
Hako returned to Norway, and urged the king to support
his cause with the sword against his cousins, Magnus and
Erlingr. He was somewhat premature, as his father and
uncle were still alive.
In the mean time S. Magnus was living the life of a
young Norse chief of the period, in Orkney. But
this was not to last long. Stirred up by Hako, Magnus
Barefoot went to sea with a fleet, coasting England and
Scotland, plundering and burning and slaying, till he
reached Orkney, when he took the two earls, Erlendr and
Paul, sent them to Norway, and instead of installing Hako,
gave the Orkneys to his son Sigurd. To prevent a rising
of the people against Sigurd, the king carried off with him
Magnus and Erlingr, as well as Hako, the son of earl
Paul. Thence he sailed to the Hebrides, 1 and from there
to the coast of Wales, where he was met off Angles ea by
two chiefs, Hugh the Fat, earl of Chester, and Hugh the
Courtly, earl of Shrewsbury. S. Magnus refused to fight ;
and when asked by the king his reason, replied that he
would not injure those who had never injured him. "Then
go down, coward, into the hold," said Magnus Barefoot
wrathfully. S. Magnus took his psalter and obeyed.
And as the battle raged above him, he sat calmly chanting
psalms in the bottom of the boat After a desperate fight,
the Welsh were beaten, and Hugh, earl of Chester, their
1 Snorro Sturlason In his "Heimskringla" gives a full account of this expedition,
and quotes portions of a poem on the harrying of the Hebrides, composed by the
skald Bjora Cripplehand, Saga xi. c. 9.
*
* ---- . -
214 Lives of the Saints.
chief, was slain. 2 Then king Magnus returned northwards
by Scotland ; and a peace was agreed upon between
Magnus Barefoot and king Malcolm III. ; " so that all the
islands lying west of Scotland, between which and the
mainland he could pass in a vessel with her rudder shipped,
should be held to belong to the king of Norway. Now
when king Magnus came north to Cantire, he had a skiff
drawn over the strand at Cantire, and shipped the rudder
of it The king himself sat in the stem-sheets, and held
the tiller- and thus he appropriated to himself the land
that lay on the larboard side. Cantire is a great district,
better than the best of the southern isles of the Hebrides,
excepting Man ; and there is a small neck of land between
it and the mainland of Scotland, over which long-ships are
often drawn."
King Magnus spent a winter in the southern isles, and
his men went over all the fiords of Scotland, rowing within
all the inhabited and uninhabited isles, and took possession
of the islands for the king of Norway. Magnus then
contracted his son Sigurd to the daughter of the king of
Connaught, gave him the title of king, and as he was still
young, gave him into the charge of the haughty Hako, son
of Paul, the exiled earl of Orkney. The two earls, Paul
and Erlendr, died in Norway the following year, 1099.
In the mean time S. Magnus had escaped. One night
as the ship of king Magnus lay in a creek of the Scottish
shore, he cast himself overboard, and swam ashore. The
king discovering his evasion, sent hounds into the forest
after him, and as the fugitive had wounded his foot on a
* These were two Hughs of Norman descent, who had ravaged Anglesea, and
built the castle of Aber Llienawg to keep down the people. Hugh of Avranches,
earl of Chester, is sketched for us by Ordericus Vitalis with some force ; he tells us
that he was so fat that he could scarcely stand, and that Hugh de Montgomery,
earl of Shrewsbury, was killed by an arrow. The Norman chronicler confirms
the account of the Icelandic Saga-man in almost every particular, (lib. x. c. 6.)
*
April 16.3 S. Magnus. 215
sharp stone, the dogs tracked him to a tree he had as-
cended. S. Magnus tore off a branch, and descending
beat the hounds of and they returned to the boat with
their tails between their legs. He remained concealed in
the woods till the white sails of the viking fleet disappeared,
and then he escaped to king Malcolm of Scotland, and
resided at his court for some while. After that he went to
Cumberland, and was the guest of the bishop of Carlisle. 1
It was during this exile that the heart of S. Magnus was
changed, so that, as his biographer says, "he began to
plough the field of his heart with the share of penitence;
he slew the man of ill-luck, 2 and hid him in the sand, the
idols of Laban he buried under the roots of the trees ; he
cast forth his sins and bitterness, and adorned himself with
great virtues, with godly favour and manly steadfastness.
He began to grow as the olive, and to abound in all good
customs and worthy acts ; as the cypress exceedeth other
trees, so grew Saint Magnus to be .great indeed 8 in divine
things as in name, advancing in prosperity and sanctity."
A year or two after the death of Magnus Barefoot, 41
(1103), Hako, son of earl Paul, obtained the tide of earl
of Orkney from king Sigurd. S. Magnus shortly after left
Caithness, where he then was with a large body of follow-
ers, to assert his right, at least to a portion of Orkney.
His arrival was hailed with enthusiasm by the islanders
who groaned under the despotic sway of Hako j and Hako
i At least so I presume. The Saga says, " He went into Britain (Bretland) and
resided with a certain bishop there.*' But to the Norse that was Britain only
where the Keltic language was spoken. Such were the Northern Bretland, or
Cumberland, and the Southern Bretland, which was Wales.
a A pun impossible to render in English. In the original it is " Ugiptumann,'*
man of ill-luck, a play on ^Egiptumann, Egyptian. The reference is to Moses
slaying the Egyptian.
* A play on his name Magnus, the Latin for Great.
* Erlingr the brother of S. Magnus fell in battle with king Magnus Barefoot.
216 Lives of the Saints.
finding that in the event of a struggle he was by no means
likely to carry the day, consented to a division of Orkney
between them; and the king confirmed the arrangement,
and conferred on S. Magnus the title of earl. For some
years Hako and S. Magnus remained on good terms, and
governed their respective earldoms without interfering with
each other, but on the contrary combining to beat off and
kill a common foe, the pirate Dufniall. This concord
could not last with a nature such as that of Hako ; the
favour his cousin met with, the love borne him by his
subjects, his virtues, all tended to inflame his jealousy, and
incline him to lend a ready ear to those who sought to stir
up strife. As Hako was well aware that he could not
obtain the mastery by open hostilities, he had resource to a
miserable piece of treachery. He invited his cousin, in
1 1 10, to meet him in the lone islet of Egilsey, (Egilsha),
there solemnly to ratify their covenant of peace. Each
was to come with only two boats and a limited number of
attendants. Magnus, thinking no evil, readily agreed, and
on the day before that appointed for the meeting, sailed
for Eglisha. The sea was calm, and the sky cloudless, yet
though there was no roll in the sea, Magnus stumbled on
entering the boat and fell. " I fear," said he ; " this is an
omen of a fatal fall." On reaching the island he visited the
rude church, and prayed, and next morning, heard mass
in it
In the mean time Hako had started with numerous ships
and a large body of armed retainers. He did not declare
his purpose till he was afloat, and then one noble fellow of
his suite, rather than partake in such a disgraceful act of
treason, leaped overboard and swam to the nearest land.
On reaching the island, Hako surrounded the church
with armed men, and Magnus coming forth, found himself
in the midst of foes.
-*
*
April ig.j ,5". Drogo. 21 7
" I see," said he, " Cousin Hako, that you have come
here to destroy me. And now I offer you three things for
my life. I will go to Jerusalem on pilgrimage for your
sins and mine own." This Hako refused. " Or I will go
with two companions into Scotland, there to be kept
under watch and ward." This Hako also refused; "Or
you may blind me and mutilate me, and lock me up in a
dark dungeon." This Hako would have granted, had not
some of his advisers interfered. Hako then ordered his
standard-bearer to kill Magnus, but he angrily refused to
do so. Hako then insisted on one of his servants dealing
him the fatal blow. The man hesitated and burst into
tears. " Do not be afraid," said Magnus ; "The guilt is
not thine; and remember my clothes will become thy
perquisite." Then, as he was being led apart to execution,
he said to the man, "Stand in front of me, and smite
lustily, for it becomes not a noble to be stricken down like
a thief." So saying he signed himself with the cross, and
at one blow his spirit was liberated.
Some of the relics of the saint, carried away from Kirk-
wall, where he was buried, at the Reformation, are now at
Aix-la-Chapelle, and in the Church of S. Vitus at Prague.
S. DROGO, H.
(A.D. 1186.)
[Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius, Molanus in his additions to
Usuardus. S. Drogo seems not to have received much veneration before
the I3th cent. Authority : A life written in 1320.]
S. DROGO OR DRUON was born at Espinay shortly after
the death of his father, and his birth caused the death of
his mother, as he was taken from her by the Csesarean
process. Thus he was from earliest infancy an orphan
*
218 Lives of the Saints.
It was not till he was ten years old that he was told how
his mother had sacrificed her life for him, and he was
filled with intense self-loathing from that moment After
having kept sheep in his early youth, he visited Rome, and
then returned to Sebourg, near Valenciennes, where he had
tended sheep for a good mistress, named Elizabeth la
Haire. She received him on his return from Rome with
the utmost kindness, and he would probably have con-
tinued in her service had he not been afflicted with a
horrible rupture, of so distressing a nature that he in-
closed himself in a cell where he could remain unseen.
His patience and piety under this loathsome and hideous
infliction were conspicuous. One day the church caught
fire, but he would not come forth from his cell, and though
part of his little home was consumed, he was uninjured.
At length the protruded bowels putrified, and he died in
lingering agonies.
His tomb at Sebourg was erected in the middle of the
nave of the church. On Trinity Sunday every year a
procession is formed at Sebourg carrying the relics of
S. Drogo.
He is regarded in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes as
the patron of shepherds, but at Ghent, for what reason it is
impossible to divine, of coffee-house keepers*
17.3 S. Anicetus. 219
April 17.
S. ANICETUS, Pope and M. at Rome, A.D. 168.
SS. MAPPALICUS AND COMP., MM. in Africa, after A.D. 2^0.
S. INNOCENT, B. offortona in Italy, circ. A.D. 3^0.
S. DOMNAN, M. inEtve Isle, off Scotland, circ. A.D. 600.
S. LANDRICK, B. of Mete, circ. A.D. 700.
S. GERWIN, Ab> of Oudenbourg in Flanders, A.D. 1117.
S. S rEPHEN HARDING, Ab. of Citeaux, A.D. 1134.
B. EBERHARDT, Prov. of Marththal in Wurtemberg, A.D. n^p.
B. RUDOLF, Boy M. at Berne, A.D. 1288.
S. ANICETUS, POPE, M.
(A.D. 1 68.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority: Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv., c. ii.
1419, v. 24,]
JSEBIUS, the Father of Ecclesiastical History,
says that S. Anicetus became bishop of Rome
after S. Pius L, i.e., about A.D. 157. He was
called upon to oppose the heresies of Valentine
and Marcion. S. Irenseus, quoted by Eusebius, says that
S. Polycarp, B. of Smyrna, the disciple of the apostle S.
John "coming to Rome under the episcppate of Anicetus,
brought many of these heretics to the Church of God, pro-
claiming the one and only true faith, which he had received
from the apostles, namely, that which had been delivered
to the Church." S. Polycarp held a conference with S.
Anicetus, on the question of the right day for celebrating
Easter. The bishop of Rome claimed S. Peter as his
authority for having instituted it on the day observed at
Rome, and the bishop of Smyrna claimed the authority of
his own master S. John, for observing Easter as in Asia
Minor; neither could convince the other, nevertheless they
parted without rupture of the tie of charity.
* *
22O Lives of the Saints.
S. DOMNAN AND COMR, MM.
(ABOUT A.D. 600.)
[Tallaght and Donegal Martyrologies and the Cashel Kalendar. The
Martyrology of S. Angus also mentions them, and these are the authorities
for all we know of them. 1 ]
S. DOMNAN, like many other Irish abbots, took boat with
fifty-two disciples, and sailed away in quest of some lone
isle where they might be with God in solitude. Having
first visited S. Columba at lona, they went North, and
settled in the island of Ewe, in Loch Ewe on the Western
Coast of Ross-shire, 2 where they were attacked and but-
chered by pirates.
S. STEPHEN HARDING, AB.
(A.D. 1134.)
[Roman, Benedictine and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority : The
Annales Cisterciences, William of Malmesbury and William, Abbot of S.
Thierri, in his life of S. Bernard.]
LITTLE as is known of the early years of S. Stephen
Harding, all his historians especially dwell on one feet,
that he was an Englishman. The date and place of his
birth, and the names of his parents, are alike unknown ;
but his name, Harding, seems to shew that he was of Saxon
blood. He first appears as a boy, brought up in the
monastery of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. Thence he travelled
to Scotland, and from Scotland to Paris and Rome. After
visiting the holy city he returned to France, and entered
the monastery of Molesme, of which S. Robert was then
abbot, and the B. Alberic prior. The three in concert
l Tbe Aberdeen Breviary commemorates on this day a S. Domnan, whether the
same or not it is impossible to decide.
8 At least I presume Ewe is the Eza, "in the North of Albln, in Cattaibh."
S. STEPHEN HARDING, Abbot.
Prom a drawing by A. Welby Fugin.
April 17.
April 17.3 S. Stephen Harding. 221
resolved to reform the Order of S. Benedict, and they built
the monastery of Citeaux. Stephen became abbot in 1109.
In 1113 S. Bernard, followed by thirty monks, came to
Stephen Harding, to place themselves under his rule; and
S. Stephen had the consolation, before his death, of seeing
ninety monasteries spring up following his rule. He died
on March 2 8th, in the year 1134, but his festival is observed
on April i7th. S. Stephen was in character a very Eng-
lishman; his life was that strange mixture of repose and
action which characterises England. Contemplative and
ascetic as he was, he was still in his way a man of action ;
he had the head to plan, and the calm, unbending energy
to execute, a great work. His very countenance, if we may
trust his .contemporary, the monk of Malmesbury, was
English ; he was courteous in speech, blithe hi countenance,
with a soul ever joyful in the Lord. His order seems to
have thriven in S. Stephen's native air ; most of our great
abbeys Tintern, Rievaulx, Fountains, Furness, and Netley,
which are known by their beautiful ruins, were Cistercian.
The order took to itself all the quiet nooks and valleys,
and all the pleasant streams of Old England, and gladdened
the soul of the labourer by its constant bells. Its agri-
cultural character was peculiarly suited to the country,
though it took its birth beyond the seas.
B. RUDOLF, BOY, M,
(A.D. 1287.)
[Inserted by Canisius in his German Martyrology and by Ferrarras in
his General Catalogue of the Saints ; and by Heinrich Murer of Lucerne in
his Helvetia Sancta. Authority : A Chronicle of Berne in MS. quoted by
Murer j but of this nothing further is known, at least it remains unpub-
lished, if still extant. He says it was brought down to the date 1440.]
THIS is another instance of a boy massacred, or rather
*
222 Lives of the Saints.
said to have been massacred by the Jews. The only
account we have of him says that he was murdered by them
in the cellar of a rich Jew, at Berne, in Switzerland, and
that the body having been found, it was decided by a
council of the clergy and aldermen of Berne that the boy
was a true martyr; therefore he was laid in the great
church near the altar of S. Cross, where afterwards was
erected the altar of S. Rudolf. The consequence of this
accusation brought against the Jews was that they were
pillaged, and expelled the town, and by order of the town
council Jews were for ever after forbidden to settle in
Berne. Some of the unfortunate Jews were broken on the
wheel, and in other ways put to death. In like manner,
elsewhere, boys are said to have been killed by Jews, as S.
William of Norwich (March 25th), little S. Hugh of Lincoln
(June 29th), S. Henry of Weissemburg (June 2 9th), S.
Simeon of Trent (March 24th), S. Werner at Oberwesel
(April 1 9th), S. Albert of Poland (April aoth). If the
reader will refer to S* William of Norwich, he will see other
instances. Such crimes may have occurred, but there is
too much reason to fear that in most cases the charge was
rashly made, and as rashly believed, and that the excuse it
afforded for pillage was too often the motive for the attri-
bution of the crime.
*-
April is.] iSS*. Eleutherm & Antia. 223
April 18.
S. CALOCERUS, M. at Brescia, A.D. 1x9.
SS. ELEUTHERIUS B. AND ANTIA, Matr. at Rome, circ. A.D. 13$.
S. APOLLONIUS, M. at Rome, circ. A.D. 185.
S. LASERIAN, B. Ab. of Leighlin, in Ireland, A.D. 639.
S. WIGTERP, B. of Augslurg, circ- A.D. 6^4.
S. AYA, Countess of Hainault, at Mons in Belgium, *]th cent*
S. URSMAR, B. and, Ab. of Lobbes, A.D. 1713-
S. PERFECT, M. at Cordova, A.D. 850.
B. IDESBALD, Ab. of Dunes in Flanders, A.D. 1167.
S. GAUDINUS, Card. 5. of Milan, A.D. 1176.
B. MARIE DE I/INCARNATION, at Pontoise, A.D. 1618.
SS. ELEUTHERIUS B. AND ANTIA, MATR., MM.
(CIRC. A.D. 135.)
[Martyrology of S. Jerome and Modern Roman Martyrology. Among the
Greeks at Constantinople on December i5th, an account of a church
having been dedicated there on that day to the martyrs by the emperor
Arcadius, in 400. The Acts which pretend to be by two contemporaries,
E ulogius and Theodulus, are a deliberate forgery by some Greek author,
who writes, "We two brothers Eulogius and Theodulus, who were both
ordained by Eleutherius, have written this ; assisted by his exhortations
we remained continuously with him, and we have written down for the
knowledge of all Christians what we saw with our eyes and heard with our
ears." Nevertheless there cannot be a question of the utterly worthless
character of these Acts. The Bollandists point them out as purely
apocryphal. 1 ]
IESE saints are highly venerated at Read in
Italy, where their relics are preserved. As the
acts of these martyrs are a tissue of impossi-
bilities and absurdities, the less said of the way
in which they suffered the better.
1 1 cannot omit this opportunity of expressing the surprise and indignation I have
often felt, in looking at the " Vies des Saints" of the Abbe Guerin and the Pete
#
224 Zzfcw of the Saints.
S. APOLLONIUS THE APOLOGIST, M.
(ABOUT A.D. 185.)
[Roman Martyrology, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, &c. Authority:
Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., Ub. v., c. 18, 21.]
APOLLONIXTS, says Eusebius. was a most eloquent senator
of Rome, renowned for his learning and wisdom. He
wrote against the Phrygian heresy, and suffered under
Commoclus, by sentence of Perennis the judge, who ordered
his limbs to be broken, and then that he should be de-
capitated.
S. LASERIAN, B. AND AB. OF LEIGHLIN.
(A.JX 639.)
[Irish Martyrologies. Authority : A life written probably by an Eng-
lishman in the nth century ; for the name Scotland is given in it, not to
Ireland as is invariably the case in earlier writers, but to Caledonia.]
S. LASERIAN was the son of Cairel, a nobleman of Ulster,
and of Gemma, daughter of Aidan, king of the British
Scots. The year of his birth is not known, and the early
part of his life is involved in obscurity. According to one
account he was a disciple of Fintan Munrm, while another
places him under an abbot Murin, probably Murgen of
Giry, perhaps the most popular Hagiology in France, when I notice the manner in
which they suppress facts, and place what they know to be apocryphal before the
unsuspicious reader as historical fact. As an instance, they give the events of this
martyrdom from the apocryphal acts without a word of caution. Yet these acts are
full of such absurdities as this, they make the woods of Italy swarm with lions and
panthers j also S. Antia is said to have known and been instructed by S. Paul.
Her son, S. Eleutherius,aged twenty, and a bishop, suffers in the s$th year of the
reign of Hadrian, i.*., in 142 ; but unfortunately for the Acts, Hadrian died in 138. S.
Paul suffered in the year 6$, and according to the Acts, S. Eleutherius was born in
112 j let us say S. Antia was 20 when S. Paul died, then she gave birth to Eleutherius
when she was aged 77 1 Also S. Eleutherius is consecrated bishop in 133 by S.
Anicetus the pope. But unfortunately S. Anicetus was not pope till more than
twenty years after Eleutherius was dead.
*
April is.] S. Laserian.
225
Glen-Ussen. When arrived at a mature age, he is said to
have proceeded to Rome, and to have remained there for
fourteen years. Then, we are told that he was ordained
priest by S. Gregory the Great, and soon after returned to
Ireland. Coming to Old Leighlin, he was affectionately
received by S. Cobban, who governed the monastery there.
This saint conceived such a high opinion of S. Laserian,
that he gave up to him his establishment and went to erect
a monastery elsewhere. Laserian is said to have had 1,500
monks under him, at Leighlin. At this time there was
controversy in Ireland as to the right time for celebrating
Easter. Some were for adopting the new Roman method,
but the bulk of the clergy and nation were attached to the
old computation, until the year 630, when, in consequence
of an admonitory letter from pope Honorius I, a synod
was held at or near Leighlin, which was attended by a great
number of persons, and amongst others by the heads of
several of the greatest religious establishments in the South
of Ireland. S. Laserian spoke in favour of the Roman
system, and was strenuously opposed by S. Fintan Munnu
of Taghmon. The heads of the old establishments declared
that they had been directed by their predecessors to follow
the practice of the successors of the apostles, and accord-
ingly proposed that Easter should for the future be cele-
brated at the same time with the Universal Church. This
was agreed to, but the contest again breaking out, it was
resolved by the elders that some wise and humble persons
should be sent to Rome, as children to their mother.
Among these was S. Laserian, in all probability, for he
certainly was at Rome the same year, after the council of
Maghlene. These deputies saw at Rome how people from
various countries celebrated Easter at one and the same
time, and they returned to Ireland to announce to those
who had deputed them, that the Roman method of keeping
VOL. iv. 15
226 Lives of the Saints.
Easter was that of the whole Christian world. Thenceforth,
about the year 633, the new Roman cycle and rules were
received in the Southern division of Ireland. Before his
return to his native island, Laserian had been consecrated
bishop by pope Honorius I. He survived his return only
a few years, as he died on April i8th, 639. He was buried
irs his own church at Leighlin, and his memory is greatly
revered in the province of Leinster.
S. AYA, COUNTESS OF HAINAULT.
(7TH CENT.)
[Belgian Martyrologies. Authority : Mention in the lives of S. Alde-
gund, S. Waltradis, and S. Hydulph.]
S. AYA, the wife of S. Hydulph, and related to SS. Aide-
gund and Waltrudis, gave all her possessions to the chapter
of canonesses founded at Mons by S. Waltrudis (April pth),
retaining for her own use only what was barely necessary.
Some years after her death certain of her heirs claimed the
lands she had given to the chapter. After a long lawsuit,
it was agreed to let S, Aya herself decide the matter.
Then, says the legend, she was invoked with a loud voice,
and lo ! from her tomb issued a hollow voice, announcing
that the lands in question belonged to the chapter of
canonesses. On account of this incident, those who suffer,
or fear suffering, injustice in a lawsuit, place themselves
under the patronage of S. Aya.
The relics of S. Aya have for many centuries been vener-
ated at Mons, but the towns of Antwerp and Brussels, as
also the Beggynhof at Ghent have obtained portions; and
the Beggynhof celebrates the feast of S. Aya every year
with a novena, on the Sunday within the Octave of the
Ascension.
April 19.] S. Vincent.
April 19.
S. TIMON, M. at Corinth, one of the first Seven Deacons, rst cent.
SS. HERMOGENES, CAIUS, EXPEDITUS AND COM p. MM. at Melitena,
in Armenia.
S. VINCENT OF CAMHORRA, M. in Spain, A.D. 303.
S. CRESCENTIUS, C. at Florence, A.D. 434.
S. GEORGE, B. ofAntioeh, in Pisidia, gth cent.
S. GERALD, H^O.S.B. in Pbrarlberg, xoth cent.
S. ALPHEQE, M., Archb. of Canterbury, A.D. 1013.
S. LEO IX., Pope of Rome, A.D. 10^4.
B. BERNARD THE PENITENT, at S. Omer, in France, A.n. n8a.
S. WERNER, Boy M-, at Oberwesel on the Rhine, A.D. 1287.
S. VINCENT OF CALAHORRA, M.
(A.D. 303.)
fMartyrology of S. Jerome, (so called), Usuardus, Ado, Notker,
Spanish and Roman Martyrologies. The genuine Acts have been wholly
lost, though there is evidence of their having originally existed. A legend
of S. Vincent is given by Salazar, but it is of no authority. 1 ]
*r.'PAIN honours several illustrious martyrs of the
name O f Vincent; Vincent, deacon of Sara-
gossa, (Jan. 22nd); Vincent of Avila, (Oct
27th) ; Vincent who was martyred with Oron-
tius and Victor, and whose body has been transported to
Embrun, (Sept i ith) and S. Vincent of Calahorra. This
martyr is said to have suffered under Diocletian. If we
may trust his legend, his feet were attached to a rope which
was passed over a pulley, and he was drawn up and then
1 Papebroeck the Bollandist says, ** Such are the Acts, which no one knew
anything of before, and no wonder, for they are from Tamayus, from whom many
other untrustworthy things have been introduced into the Spanish Martyrology,
which we think proper to cut out of our work. It appears to be, from its
style, a composition of this, or last century, which Tamayus without judgment
admitted as old," and he adds that these Acts are all guess work. Yet Guerin the
editor of Giry's Vies des Saints, gives this as genuine 1
%
228 Lives of the Saints.
dashed head foremost upon flints, and afterwards con-
sumed in a great fire. He is venerated at Acqs-sur-Adour
as the apostle of that part; on what authority it is im-
possible to say.
S. GEROLD, H.
(lOTH CENT.)
[At Einsiedeln and in the diocese of Coire as a double. Authority :
A life written by Albert Breinstaten, dean of Einsiedeln, in 1404, from
traditions and lost historical notices ; also the lessons in the Coire
Breviary.]
NEAR Mitternacht, three hours walk from Bludenz, in
the Walserthai, in Tyrol, lies the scattered village of S.
Gerold, with an old church and a convent, called the
Probstei, belonging to the abbey of Einsiedeln. In the
nave is the tomb of S. Gerold and his two sons, Kuno
and Ulrich, an object of devout pilgrimage. S. Gerold, of
the ducal house of Saxony, lived here among the mountains
of the Vorarlberg, as a hermit, towards the close of the loth
century. Count Otto of Jagdberg gave him the wild unin-
habited mountain side, and this he presented to the abbey
of Einsiedeln before his death. His two sons, Benedictines
of Einsiedeln, with the consent of their abbot, retired after
the death of their father into his cell, and, dying there in
the odour of sanctity, were laid in the same grave with him.
After a while the dense pine-forests were cleared, and made
way for green meadows, peasants settled and built their
chalets near the grave ; and from that time to the present
day, two priests from Ensiedeln have watched by the holy
grave, and ministered to the spiritual wants of those who
dwell around.
><-
April i 9 o S. Alphege. 229
S. ALPHEGE, ARCHB. M.
(A.D. 1012.)
[Sarum Breviary, Roman Martyrology ; Modern Anglican Kalendar.
Authority: His life written by Osbern, monk of Canterbury, by order
of archbishop Lanfranc, A.D. 1070; and the Saxon Chronicle, and
Dietmar of Merseburg. 1 ]
S. ALPHEGE, or properly ^Elfheagh, was bom of a noble
family in Britain, about the year 954. While he was still
very young he renounced the world ; and, notwithstanding
the tears and entreaties of his mother, retired into the
monastery of Dersherste, in Gloucestershire, where he
served God with great devotion, and in warfare against his
passions for many years. After a time he became
abbot of a religious house at Bath. On the death of
Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, in 984, S. Dunstan, who
was then primate of England, called S. Alphege to the vacant
dignity; and after governing the see of Winchester for
twenty-two years, he was translated to that of Canterbury
on the death of archbishop ^Elfric, in 1006, being then
fifty-five years of age. But in the mean time he had
rendered one piece of important service to his country.
In 994, Anlaf as the Saxon Chronicle calls him that is,
Olaf Tryggveson, king of Norway, attacked London, when
the citizens bravely beat him off, and then he ravaged the
south coast of England, and wintered at Southampton.
King Ethelred sent S. Alphege and the alderman Ethel-
1 The account in the Saxon Chronicle is perfectly trustworthy. Osbern is fond of
marvels, and he says some things which are clearly not true. For instance, he
makes Eadric join the Danes and help to take Canterbury, because one of his
brothers had been killed by the thanes of Kent. But it is worth noticing that a
great part of Osbern's account appears also in Florence of Worcester; either
Florence copied so much of Osbern as agreed with the Chronicle, or else both
Florence and Osborne copied from somebody else. Dietmar, bishop of Merseburg^
a German historian who lived at the time, says he had his account from a man
who had just come from England, but he makes a strange blunder when he calls
Alphege, Dunstan.
230 Lives of the Saints. [April 19.
werd to Olaf, to request him to confer with the king ; and
they brought him to Andover where Ethelred then was.
Olaf was a Christian, but was unconfirmed A treaty of
peace was concluded between the two kings at Andover,
and Ethelred had Olaf confirmed by S. Alphege, and
adopted him as his son. Olaf then promised that he
would never invade England again, and he kept his
promise faithfully.
But in 1008, a Danish fleet came in two divisions, the
first commanded by earl Thorkell, the second by his
brothers Heming and Eglaf. From this time till the end
of Ethelred's reign we read of nothing but ravages by the
Danes. These lasted till 1013, when king Sweyn came
himself. In ion, the Danes took Canterbury, which was
betrayed to them by Alfmar, the abbot of S. Augustine's,
whose life had once been saved by archbishop Alphege.
The Danes are said to have committed every sort of
cruelty ; and they took many prisoners whom they destined
to sell as slaves. The city was plundered, and the cathe-
dral burnt. But what made this taking of Canterbury
most famous is the martyrdom of archbishop Alphege.
This the Saxon Chronicle describes at length as follows :
" The Danes went to their ships and led the archbishop
with them.
He was then captive Misery where men oft
Who was erewhile Erewhile saw bliss,
The head of the English Whence to us first came
And of Christendom. Christianity and bliss
There might then be seen Before God and the world.
In that hapless city
And they kept the archbishop with them till the time that
they martyred him.
"1012. In this year came Edric the Ealdorman, and all
the chief Witan, clergy and laity of the English people, to
April 9J S. Alphege. 231
London, before Easter ; Easter day was then on the Ides
of April, (April isth) ; and they were there then so long as
until all the tribute was paid, that is, eight and forty thou-
sand pounds. Then on the Saturday the Danish army
was greatly excited against the bishop, because he would
not promise them any money; but he forbade that any
money should be given as his ransom. They had also
drunk deeply, for wine had been brought there from the
south. Then they took the bishop, led him to their hustings
on the eve of Sunday, the Octave of Easter ; and they pelted
him with bones and horns of oxen, and then one of them
struck him with an axe-iron on the head, so that he sank
down, and his holy blood fell on the earth, and his holy
soul he sent forth to God's kingdom. And on the morrow
they carried the dead body to London, and bishops Ednoth
(of Dorchester), and Elfhun (of London), and the towns-
men received it with all reverence, and buried it in S.
Paul's minster ; and there now God manifesteth the miracu-
lous powers of the holy martyr."
Thus it stands in the Saxon Chronicle, as written within
eleven years of the martyrdom, before the body of S.
Alphege was translated from London to Canterbury.
Florence of Worcester says that on Sunday, the ipth,
the Danes told S. Alphege that he must obtain three thou-
sand pounds of the king and people as his ransom, or
they would kill him next Satuiday. And as he refused
to allow this additional burden to be laid on the country in
its last distress, to raise the tax demanded of the Danes,
they brought him forth and killed him, as it is said in
the Chronicle. He adds that the Dane who smote him
with the battle axe was one Thrum, whom he had converted
and baptized in his prison, and had confirmed only the
day before, and that he did it out of pity to put an end to
his sufferings. The story, as told by Dietmar, is rather
*
*
232 Lives of the Saints.
different, and in all probability incorrect The bishop of
Merseburg says that Alphege had promised to obtain the
money for his ransom, and that he had fixed the time for
paying it, but when the time came, he said he had none
to pay. But this contradicts the Saxon Chronicle, which is
far more likely to be correct, and which distinctly states
that Alphege would not promise them any ransom, and
this explains why the Danes were so incensed against him.
But another statement of Dietmar is probably correct. He
says that Thorkell, the Danish earl, tried to save him, but
that the other Danes would not hearken. This agrees with
ThorkelTs conduct afterwards, for he passed into the ser-
vice of Ethelred. The murder of S. Alphege is said to
have taken place at Greenwich, where the church of S.
Alphege now stands. As the Saxon Chronicle indicates,
the murdered archbishop was looked upon by the English,
almost at once, as a martyr. After the Norman Conquest,
Lanfranc, the Italian archbishop, said that he was no
martyr, because he had not died for the Christian faith;
but S. Anselm, who was afterwards archbishop, acknow-
ledged him as a true martyr, for he had died for righteous-
ness and charity ; that is, that he chose to die rather than
let his people be further oppressed to raise the money to
ransom him.
In 1023, Canute the Great was prevailed upon by his
pious queen Emma, to make amends for the cruelty and
sacrilege which the followers of his father had committed.
He removed the body of S. Alphege to Canterbury, where
it was laid in a noble tomb, near the high altar, and the
cathedral was enriched by many costly gifts of the king
and queen.
S. ALPBEGE.
April ig.
April ip.] S. Leo IX. 233
S. LEO IX., POPE.
(A.D. 1054.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority : His life written by his archdeacon,
Wibert ; also the account of his death by an eye-witness, published by the
Bollandists ; also a life written by S. Bruuo, B. of Segni, (d. 1123), and an
Itinerary of Leo IX., through France, by Anselm, monk of Rheims. Also
a life, by an anonymous writer, written fifty years after the death of
S. Leo ; and a life by Nicolas, cardinal of Aragon, (d. 1362.) Of these
, the life by S. Bruno is unimportant, being in the form of a sermon. That
by Wibert is very valuable ; the account of the death of S. Leo is exagge-
rated and amplified by a later hand. The life by the Cardinal of Aragon,
being late, is of little value. Another important source of information is
the contemporary chronicle of Hermann the Cripple.]
To understand the greatness and the difficulties that
beset S. Leo IX., we must have some knowledge of the
condition of the Western Church and of the Papacy in the
first half of the nth century.
The counts of Tusculum governed Rome ; they were a
powerful family, who had resisted the emperor Otho III. in
the zenith of his power. The counts bought the venal
people of Rome, and appointed popes by the most open
simony. The papacy became an apanage of their family;
they had almost succeeded, had they not blindly abused
their influence, in rendering it hereditary. Three popes in
succession from this powerful family became the heads of
Christendom. The hereditary papacy in the house of
Tusculum, if it had debased the Holy See by men of
rapacity and violence, had yet appointed as popes men
not wanting in energy and vigour. But at length, as though
their object had been to reduce the Chair of S. Peter to
the utmost degradation, by their irresistible gold they
secured the pontificate for a boy of ten years old, the
nephew of his predecessors, Benedict VIII., and John
XIX. 1 For twelve years Benedict IX., under the pro-
1 rt Puer ferine decennis, intercedcnte thesaurorum pecunia, electus eattitit a
Romanis." Radolfus Glaber, iy. $.
*
234 Lives of the Saints. CA P ru xg .
tection of his powerful kindred, ruled in Rome, in the words
of one of his successors, Victor III., leading a life so
shameful, so foul, and execrable, that he shuddered to
describe it 1 The oppressed people at length grew weary
of his robberies, murders, and abominations. They rose
in 1044, drove him from the city, and proceeded to
the election of Silvester III. But the counts of Tusculum
were too powerful for the Romans to resist them thus, and
Benedict IX. was brought back in triumph, aAd Silvester
retired excommunicated But Benedict grew weary of his
office, and sold it to the arch-priest John, who assumed the
name of Gregory VI. Not only did he pay a large sum to
Benedict himself, he confessed the purchase of the suffrages
of the people.
But Benedict's brother would not brook the obscuration
of the house of Tusculum. He brought back the abdicated
pope, and reinstated him on his throne. There were there-
fore three popes in Rome, each at the head of a faction.
Benedict held the Lateran, Gregory Sta Maria Maggiore,
Silvester S. Peter's and the Vatican.
Christendom could not longer endure this state of things.
Peter, archdeacon of Rome, commissioned by the monks,
a great number of the clergy, and the more devout Iaity 7
crossed the Alps, and threw himself at the feet of the
emperor, imploring his succour. Henry III. at once
advanced to the rescue. At Piacenza, Gregory, supposing
his own claims to the papacy irrefragable, ventured to meet
him. Henry gave no answer, but advanced to Sutri, about
thirty miles north of Rome. There he assembled a council,
in which were examined the claims of the conflicting popes.
Silvester was condemned at once as an usurper, the
voluntary abdication of Benedict annulled his claim.
Gregory fondly thought that there was now no obstacle to
i Victor III., Dialog, lib. Hi.
April i 9 o vS. Leo IX. 235
his universal recognition. But he was called upon to give
an account of his election. He could not deny, he could
not attempt to extenuate, the flagrant simony of those
proceedings by which he had bought the papacy,
admitted his guilt, his disqualification, stripped off his
pontifical robes, and quietly surrendered up the papacy.
The only remedy for the evil was the appointment of a
foreigner, so as to rescue the chief throne of the Church
from the counts of Tusculum and the barons of Rome.
Henry III. went with all the prelates and princes to
Rome to be there crowned emperor.
But to be crowned he must first have a pope. He looked
around, and saw that there was scarcely one in the Roman
Church who was not disqualified either as illiterate, or as
tainted with simony, 1 or through immorality. Suidger,
bishop of Bamberg, was appointed to be pope by the
emperor, who led him himself to the papal throne; the
people seeming to assent by their acclamations. Suidger
took the name of Clement IL, and Henry received the
imperial crown from the hands of the new pope.
Clement II. united with the emperor to abolish simony,
and pronounced excommunication against all such as had
bought their offices in the Church; he also decreed that
all such as had received orders from a simonical bishop
should do penance for forty days.
Pope Clement II. died the same year that he was ap-
pointed, and the emperor, desirous of acting in accordance
with canon law for the good of the Church, consulted the
1 Simony is the sin of buying holy offices in the Church, so called after Simon
Magus. On the notoriety of the simoniacal proceedings at Rome, see S. Peter
Damian :
" Heri sedes Apostolica
Orbis olim gloria,
Nunc, pro dolor ! efficeris
Officinia Simonis."
Damian, lib. iv. Ep. 9.
*
236 Lives of the Saints. [A P m i 9 .
virtuous bishop Wazo of Liege, who told him that the
deposition of Gregory VI. was informal on account of his
interference. But before the opinion reached the emperor,
he had already appointed bishop Poppo of Brixen to the
Papal throne, which he assumed under the title of Da-
masus II, and held for only a few days, dying to all
appearance, from poison. The emperor then nominated
bishop Bruno of Toul. 1 This excellent prelate received
the nomination with great repugnance. He habited himself
as a pilgrim, and walked to Rome, where he assembled the
clergy and people, and protested that he was acting solely
on compulsion in undertaking the heavy burden of the
government of the Church, and that he accepted it only on
condition of its being ratified by the clergy and laity of
Rome. If they did not feel willing to acknowledge him, he
declared that none would be more rejoiced than himself,
and that with glad heart and relieved mind he would re-
sume his pilgrim's staff and speed home to his little
church of Toul. But his election was unanimous, and he
was enthroned under the name of Leo IX. His modera-
tion was so great, that he supported himself, and gave to
the poor, out of the money he had brought with him, for
the Papal exchequer was empty. When he had spent all,
he was going to sell his ecclesiastical vestments and return
home to Toul, but the news spreading, so many offerings
poured in from Beneventum that he was relieved from all
anxiety on the subject of his finances.
S. Leo had a work demanding the zeal of a saint and
the courage of a hero to carry it through. If he hesitated
in his course it was not that he doubted for a moment as to
what was the crying sin of the Church which had to be
extirpated, but as to when and by what means he could
*He was born in the castle of Egesheim, a league from Colmar, in the year
zoos. In the year 1026 he succeeded Herman, bishop of Toul ; and Damasus II, as
pope, in 1049.
April i 9 j S. Leo IX. 237
effect his sacred purpose. Among the adherents of the
principle of reform there was a division, some going so far
in their zeal against the sin of simony, that, as none of the
bishops who had obtained their sees by purchase were, in
their opinion, true bishops, they declared all ordinations
performed by them to be invalid also. The other more
prudent party held fast, even here, to the objective validity
of the sacramental acts which constituted bishops and
priests. Pope Leo was at first inclined to the principles of
the former party, at the head of which stood cardinal
Humbert, until it was represented to him, that if all such
ordinations should be considered null, the churches in Rome
would be left without priests, and no mass could be cele-
brated. 1 But at Vercelli he was once more induced to
consider these ordinations as void, and to ordain over again
those who had been ordained by simoniacal prelates. It
being again represented to him, that such a proceeding was
at variance with the principle of the objective validity of
the sacraments, he rose up in the council from his papal
chair, and begged the assembled bishops to pray to the
Lord that he might be forgiven. An instance of the
humility of this great and holy man, bent on the cleansing
of the vineyard of the Lord. But on his return to Rome,
the influence of cardinal Humbert again prevailed, and he
continued to re-ordain in the same manner.
The general marriage or concubinage of the clergy no
less embarrassed the austere reformers. . It was determined
that the clergy of Rome should no longer live scattered
about in private houses, but in colleges, and so be sub-
mitted to rigid superintendence. The stern S. Peter
Damiani presented a book to the pope, the title of which
expressed in the coarsest form the vices widely prevalent
among the monks and secular clergy, a book which the
J S* Pet. Damian. Liber Gratissimus. Opus. vi. s. 35.
238 Lives of the Saints. [April 19.
wiser Alexander II. stole and shut up, but which Leo IX.
accepted as an honest exposition of the morals of the times.
The energy of the vigorous German pope knew no
abatement His pontificate of five years was spent in
constant activity. One month after his enthronement, he
held a council at Rome on the crying question of simony :
and then he went to Pavia, where he assembled another
council.
But the saintly ambition of Leo did not confine his views
for the reformation of the Church to Italy. Though now
hardly seated firmly in his throne at Rome, he resolved to
undertake, as it were, a religious visitation of Western
Europe, to show himself in each of the three great king-
doms as the supreme pontiff and that in all the genuine
characteristics of his office, the protector of the oppressed,
the redresser of grievances, the corrector of abuses, the
judge of offenders.
Leo came forth to Europe, not only with the power and
dignity, but with the austere holiness, the indefatigable
religious activity, the majestic virtue which became the
head of Christendom. He crossed the Alps to Germany.
He celebrated the feast of Christmas at Cologne, where he
was received by the holy archbishop Hermann. S. Leo
created a new and high office for the archbishop of Cologne,
the arch-chancellorship of the Apostolic See.
On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, S. Leo
was at Toul, whence he issued summons to the bishops and
abbots of France to assemble in council at Rheims, in
October. Those bishops and abbots who dreaded an
examination into their way of attaining their offices,
complained to the king of France, and Henry sent the
bishop of Senlis to request that the council might be held
at some future period. The pope peremptorily replied that
he had promised to be at Rheims in October to dedicate
4,
S. Leo IX. 239
the new abbey church of S. Remigius, and that he would
keep his promise and hold the council.
The pope arrived at Rheims on the feast of S. Michael,
1049, accompanied by the archbishops of Treves, Lyons,
and Besangon, by John, bishop of Porto, and Peter the
deacon, prefect of Rome. Three bishops, those of Senlis,
Angers and Nevers met him in procession, and at the
entrance of the city, he was received by the archbishop
and clergy of Rheims, and conducted to the cathedral,
where he sang high mass.
On the ist October S. Leo dedicated the glorious abbey
church of S. Remi, one of the noblest monuments of
early French architecture ; and preserved to our days
almost intact On October 3rd, the first session of the
council of Rheims was held in this church. It was attended
by twenty bishops and fifty abbots : among the latter were
two English abbots sent by king Edward the Confessor.
Again, foremost on the chapter of agenda came the great
question of simony, to combat which the great pope
sacrificed himself. The archbishop of Treves rose first and
swore that he had not bought his throne, the archbishops of
Lyons and Besangon followed ; the archbishop of Rheims
hesitated, and asked a delay before he answered, that he
might speak in private with the pope. All the other
bishops swore to their innocence, except those of Langres,
Nevers, Coutances, and Nantes. Then the abbots were
required to take the oath. He of S. Remi did so without
hesitation, but he was one among very few. ,
In the second session the archbishop of Rheims again
declined to take the oath, and was required to attend a
council to be held at Rome the following year. We have
not space to enter further into the deliberations of the
council. No sooner was it over, than the energetic pope
hastened to Mainz, to hold there a council. This council
240 Lives of the Saints.
i 9 .
was attended by forty prelates. It confirmed all the acts of
the council of Rheims. Sibico, bishop of Spires, was
forced to take the sacrament in proof of his guiltlessness of
simony. According to the biographer of Leo, Sibico's
cheek was struck with palsy, and he bore for life the brand
of his perjury. Leo passed the Christmas in Verona, and
thence returned to Rome. In this single spiritual campaign,
by the calm dignity of his holiness, by his appeal to the
strong religious reverence of Christendom, he restored the
papacy to all its former authority over the minds of men.
He had justly elevated the pride of Germany in having
bestowed such a pope upon the world, crushed the ten-
dencies to rebellion in the churches of France and Spain,
and brought them again into acknowledged subordination
to the see of S. Peter.
In April, next year, 1050, the council meditated the
previous year was held at Rome. In it was condemned
the heresy of Berengarius, who denied Transubstantiation.
In September, S. Leo presided at the council of Vercelli,
after which he crossed the Alps and came to Toul. The
German popes had introduced a singular kind of plurality.
Clement II. had retained the bishopric of Bamberg, and
Leo was still bishop of Toul.
The pope again visited some of the great cities of Ger-
many, everywhere making magnificent grants, confirming
the rights and possessions of monasteries. He was at
Treves and at Augsburg, and on the Feast of the Purifica-
tion of the Virgin met the emperor. But enemies of the
pope had now arisen at the court of the emperor. Leo IX.
was too much of a German pontiff for the Italians, not
German enough for his countrymen. The Germans, during
the reign of the Francbnian emperors, had possessed them-
selves of some of the wealthiest sees in Italy. A German
held the see of Ravenna, and under his episcopate Ravenna
-*
April i 9 o S. Leo IX. 241
had begun to reassert her ancient pretensions to independ-
ence of Rome. Leo would not endure the encroachments
even of a German prelate, raised to his see by the special
favour of the emperor. The Italian prelates joined eagerly
in the humiliation of the German of Ravenna ; Humfred of
Ravenna was degraded and excommunicated by the pope
and council of VercellL At this act, the brooding jealousy
against the pope broke out at the court of Henry into open
hostility. Bishop Notger of Friesingen grasping his neck,
said, " May a sword cleave this throat if I work not the
ruin of this pope." The biographer of Leo adds that the
bishop was seized with a pain in his neck, and died in a
few days. At Augsburg the pope was compelled to submit
to the restoration of his haughty antagonist Humfred
knelt "According to the depth of thy repentance," said
the pope, " may God forgive thee thy sins."
The prelate rose, and broke into scornful laughter.
Tears filled the eyes of the pope. "Miserable, he is a
dead man 1" Humfred returned to Ravenna, fell ill, and
in a few days died.
The third journey of Leo IX. beyond the Alps was as
mediator between the emperor Henry and Andrew king of
Hungary; but his efforts were in vain. Henry coldly
declined to accept his mediation, and the pope withdrew.
Christmas was celebrated by S. Leo and the emperor,
and many of the great prelates of Germany, at Worms.
They met not merely to celebrate the birth of the Redeemer
with more than usual magnificence, but on secular affairs of
great importance.
The anti-papal party at the court of Henry had grown in
strength and bitterness of hostility. The pope's most attached
friend and most powerful supporter, Bardo, archbishop
of Mainz, was dead ; and the emperor of his own authority
had appointed Liutpold, dean of Bamberg, to the German
VOL. IV. 1 6
242 Lives of the Saints. cApnii 9 .
primacy. The pope, in order to propitiate the new pri-
mate, had bestowed some further privileges on the see of
Mainz. But Leo, as if he knew the character of Liutpold,
when he appointed him papal legate in his diocese, took
occasion to remind him of the duties of his function. A
trifling incident betrayed the jealousy of the German and
Italian Churchmen, the difficult position of the pope, who
having favoured the insolent superiority of the Italians, was
obliged to humble himself before the sullen obstinacy of
the Germans. On S. Stephen's Day, at Worms, Liutpold
said mass before the pope. After he had said the first
prayer, the deacon chanted a lesson, for it was the custom
in some Churches to sing several at the solemn feasts.
But as this was not according to the Roman use, some near
S. Leo instigated him to send and forbid the deacon to
proceed. The deacon flatly refused to obey, and though
he received from S. Leo a second injunction to desist, con-
tinued to thunder forth the lesson. The pope thereupon
had him conducted to his chair, and degraded him from his
office. The archbishop of Mainz took fire, and refused to
proceed with mass till his deacon was restored to him.
The pope refused, whereupon the archbishop sat down, in
dogged resistance. The pope yielded. The dalmatic and
the stole were replaced on the degraded deacon, and he
was sent back to the archbishop, who thereupon resumed
the singing of mass.
But this, humiliating as it was, was not the most fatal
mark of jealousy displayed by German Churchmen against
the unpopular Pontiff. At a council at Mantua in 1053,
suddenly broken off, undisguised signs of German hostility
manifested themselves. For the servants of some of the
bishops having insulted those of the pope who were stand-
ing at the entrance to the church in which the council was
assembled, the Holy Father was obliged to go forth to
April 19.3 tSl Leo IX. 243
allay the tumult But without respecting his person, the
servants of the bishop drove those of S. Leo against the
door, and to save their lives they were admitted. Arrows
and stones flew about the head of the pope, and some who
sheltered themselves under his mantle were wounded. The
tumult was quelled with difficulty, and the council was dis-
solved. On the morrow the guilty bishops, who were the
authors of the disturbance, were brought up for examination
and sentence, but S. Leo pardoned them, lest it should
appear as if he were judging partially. Gebhard, bishop of
Eichstadt, who was of great weight in the councils of the
emperor, persuaded him to withdraw the troops, which
were to march with the pope into Italy, and put him in
possession of Benevento, which Leo had obtained in grant
from the emperor in lieu of certain rights claimed by the
Holy See in Germany. The pope had influence enough to
retain in his service five hundred Swabians. With these,
and a host of lawless adventurers and mercenaries, who
gathered around his standard as he proceeded, S. Leo
marched through Italy to appear at the head of his own
forces, the first, or almost the first, martial pope, against the
terrible Normans.
In 102 1, Rudolf, a Norman, with some few followers.
half adventurers driven from their native lands, half pilgrims
to the shrine of the Apostles, had appeared in Rome. Bene-
dict IX. had enlisted them in his cause, and had garrisoned
with them one of his fortresses. But the Normans had
speedily asserted their independence, had seized and made
themselves sovereigns of many cities, and swept Southern
Italy with fire and sword. The deliverance of Southern
Italy from these half-Christianized and barbarous free-
booters seemed to justify to pope Leo even his warlike
preparations- He wrote to the Greek emperor, Constantine
Monomachus, to declare the reasons which urged him to
244 Lives of the Saints. cA P rui 9 .
undertake this war in person. The Normans, thus wrote
Leo to the emperor, that undisciplined race, were ravaging
Christian Italy with more than pagan impiety ; they spared
neither age nor sex, and not merely slew the Christians
indiscriminately in promiscuous fray, but put them to death
slowly with indescribable tortures. They made no distinc-
tion between things sacred and profane ; they plundered,
burned, razed churches. Princes, according to the apostle,
were not to bear the sword in vain and as a prince, Leo
went out to war, not that he desired the death of a single
Norman, but his subjects must look to him, as their sove-
reign, for protection.
In his youthful days, Leo had acquired some fame for
military conduct; he had commanded the vassals of the
bishopric of Toul iu one of the expeditions of the emperor
Conrad into Italy. But his conduct in this campaign
belied his early fame. The sagacity and forethought for-
merly ascribed to him, utterly failed, not that he actually
took the generalship of his troops in the battle, but all the
movements seem to have been under his guidance. He
fixed his head-quarters at Civitella, and launched his first
blow, the excommunication of the Normans. Then he
pushed forward his troops to the banks of the Fertorio,
near Dragonata. The German troops were not above five
hundred. The terrible Normans mustered three thousand
horsemen, who were said to be able to cleave an enemy
from the head to the saddle with one blow. They were
commanded by the sons of Tancred, Humphrey, Richard
of Aversa, and the yet unrenowned Robert Guiscard.
Three days the armies watched each other. While the
negociations were pending, Leo allowed the Normans to
occupy a hill which was the key to his position, and which
subsequently lost him the battle. The fourth day the
Normans burst down in three squadrons. The Lombards,
X
April IP.] Leo IX. 245
on one wing of Leo's army, the Apulians on the other, fled
at once ; the Germans were surrounded and cut to pieces
to a man. The Normans rushed from the field to seize the
pope at Civitella, The humbled pope at once relieved
them from their excommunication. The rude soldiers,
perhaps from dread, the leaders from that craft in which
Normans excelled as much as in valour, cast themselves
down before the pope, entreated his pardon, and professed
penitence. Count Humfrey, the gentlest of the sons of
Tancred, became the gaoler of the pope, and conducted
him with all respect to Benevento, where he remained, a
prisoner, for some months, from the 23rd June, 1053, to
the 1 2th March, 1054.
Heart-broken at the failure of all his schemes, conscious
that he had incurred the rebuke of S. Peter Damiani and
many of the strictest of the reforming party, in becoming
the leader of an army; knowing that he was absolutely in
the power of his enemies, the Normans, S. Leo betook him-
self to the severest acts of penitential austerity. He wore
nothing but sackcloth ; he slept on a carpet, with a stone
for his pillow, the few hours which he allowed for sleep.
Every day he said mass, almost all the rest of the day and
night were passed in prayer, and the recital of the psalter.
Whilst S. Leo was a prisoner to the Normans, he received
a letter from Peter, the new patriarch of Antioch, announcing
his promotion and soliciting intercommunion. The pope
replied, praising the patriarch for recognizing the primacy
of the Holy See, and exhorting him to sustain the dignity
of the see of Antioch against the claims of the see of Con-
stantinople.
About the same time Humbert, cardinal-bishop of S.
Rufina, being at Trani, saw a letter from Michael Cerularius,
patriarch of Constantinople, and Leo, bishop of Achrida and
Metropolitan of Bulgaria, to the bishop of Trani, objecting
246 Lives of the Saints. [April 19.
to the use of unleavened bread for the Holy Eucharist
There can be no doubt that our Lord used unleavened
bread at the institution of the Sacrament, but the Eastern
Church, in opposition to the Jews, employed bread that had
been leavened. But where there was no Judaising element,
as in Western Christendom, it was manifestly right for the
Church to recur to the use sanctioned by Christ's example.
To this the patriarch objected. Another objection was
raised to the eating of things strangled, and also to the
omission of Alleluia in Lent Cardinal Humbert took this
letter to S. Leo ; he answered it in a long epistle, and after-
wards sent three legates to Constantinople to endeavour to
compose the difference. His life was, however, drawing to
a close. He was still at Benevento, studying Greek, and in
hours of relaxation playing with a parrot, which he had
taught to say "Papa Leo." But he fell sick in his confine"
ment, and the Normans, perhaps out of compassion, perhaps
lest they should be accused of the death of the pope while
in their hands, were willing to release the dying man. On
the 1 2th March he left Benevento, under the escort of the
Norman Humfrey. He was obliged to rest twelve days at
Capua. He arrived at Rome, but repressed the universal
joy by melancholy intimations of his approaching death, too
visibly confirmed by his helpless condition. His calm
departure reaches sublimity. He ordered his coffin to be
carried to S. Peter's ; he reposed in a couch by its side.
There he gave his last admonitions to the ecclesiastics
around, entreating them to abstain from simony ; there he
received the last sacraments of the Church. He rose with
difficulty, and looked into his coffin. " Behold, my brethren,
the mutability of human things. The cell which was my
dwelling when a monk expanded into yonder spacious palace;
it shrinks again into this narrow coffin/' Next morning he
was dead. He died before the altar of S. Peter's.
April i9.] iS! Leo IX. 247
S. Leo was a great man, and if he erred in judgment, to
have so erred was creditable to his heart Zeal, enthusiasm
for truth and righteousness, was the distinguishing feature
of his character, and it is impossible to over-rate the advan-
tage to the Church, and to the Holy See, of the brief rule
of this admirable pontiff. From him vice and irreligion met
with the sternest opposition. Had he been less earnest in
his advocacy of reformation, he would not have incurred
the hostility of the German prelates, the emperor would not,
by their advice, have withdrawn his troops from the support
of Leo, and perhaps the war would have taken a different
turn, and the Norman conquest of Southern Italy would
have been prevented. It was his sympathy with the
sufferers through the incursions of the Normans which
excited the pope to draw the sword against those ferocious
marauders. To him the people turned in their despair,
and to no one else could they look. Yet by the men of
the more strict party, who were earnest for the restoration
of Church discipline, and with whom he had hitherto
worked cordially, his conduct was disapproved. 1 They
would have preferred to have seen him sit meekly in a corner
of the Vatican, immersed in meditation, whilst houses were
burning, rich farm-lands devastated, and virgins violated.
i Bruno, bishop of Segni, says of S. Leo, in reference to the war, " He had a zeal
of God indeed, but not perhaps according to knowledge. Would that he had not
gone himself, but had sent, instead, his army for the defence of the right." Hermann
the Cripple says that the defeat of Civitella was a judgment of God, either because
the pope ought to have warred only with spiritual weapons, or because his army
was made up of such licentious adventurers. But the sternest rebuke came from
his friend S. -Peter Damiani, who remained firm in maintaining that the priest
ought in no case to contend with the sword, not even in defence of the Church, much
less in defence of the property and rights of the Church; and he even classes
Leo's warfare with such crimes as the adultery of David and the denial of S. Peter.
Damiani, Epist. iv. 9. And even in the Christian consciousness of many a layman
the disadvantageous impression which this expedition of his made, seems to have
raised objections against paying him the honours of a saint. Bruno of Segni
relates that when, after Leo's death, it was reported that persons possessed of evil
spirits were healed at his tomb, a certain woman exclaimed, "Pope Leo, who
caused so many men to shed their blood, drive away evil spirits 1 When Leo can
do this, I will restore to life those whom he killed by his impiety."
" ' ' ' ~-" ' <
248 Lives of the Saints, [April X
& WERNER, BOY M.
(A.D. 1287.)
[Veneiated at Oberwesel on the Rhine, and throughout the diocese of
Treves. 1 Authority : The Acts of the Martyrdom written shortly after
the event. Also the Annales Treverenses, sub ann. 1287, a composition of
many hands and different dates.]
THE story of this boy martyr is as follows : Werner was
a poor orphan child at Wammenreit near Bacharach on
the Rhine, where he served a glass-blower; but running
away from his brutal treatment, he came to Oberwesel,
where he entered into service to a Jew. The boy was then
fourteen years old. When the Passover approached, the
Jew warned him to be on his guard ; " for/' said he, "you
know that Jews eat little men like you/'
Werner replied that God's will should be done. Then he
went to church and confessed, and received the Holy Com-
munion. On his return he was seized by some Jews and
taken into a cellar and hung up by the heels, that' he might
eject the Blessed Sacrament. As this did not succeed, they
put a piece of lead in his mouth to prevent him from crying,
and proceeded to open his veins. A Christian servant
maid, peeping through a chink in the door, saw what was
being done, and ran to the magistrate, the Schultheis of
Oberwesel to entreat his interference. The magistrate
arrived, and the Jews bribed him to hold his tongue, pre-
tending that they were only chastising a disobedient and
troublesome knave. The Schultheis pocketed the money,
and told Werner he could not help him. " Then," said the
boy, "I commend myself to God." The third day after, he
died from his wounds, having been completely bled to
1 By some writers it has been asserted that S. Werner was canonized by pope
Martin V., in 1430; but there is no evidence that such was the case, though a
"processus" was drawn up at the instigation of the legate of that pope to be sub-
mitted to hinj.
*
April 19.3 S. Werner. 249
death, and the Jews were in great alarm. To conceal the
crime, some of them took the body by night and carried
it to a boat, which they rowed up stream till they reached
Bacharach, when the boat ran aground. Then they stepped
out, and flung the body into a pit covered with brambles in
a thorn brake at Wynderbach. That night the watchmen
making their circuit of the walls of Bacharach saw a
strange light above the thorn brake of Wynderbach, and
when search was made there, the body of the murdered boy
was found. He was buried with great ceremony, the mar-
vel of the light having led the people to regard him as a
saint A gold wreath was placed round his head, and he
was laid on a cushion of silk, strewn with violets ; and the
body was transported to the chapel of S. Cunibert on the hill
above Bacharach, where he was buried. His fellow servant
hearing of the discovery, hastened from Oberwesel, and
related what she had seen, and how the magistrate had
behaved. Such is the story. The ruined church of S.
Werner, erected in 1428, in the most exquisite Gothic of
that date, stands below the castle of Stahleck above the
Rhine, where the boy's body was laid, and a chapel on the
town wall at Oberwesel occupies the site of the house in
which he was murdered.
-*
250 Lives of the Saints.
April 20*
SS. SULPICIUS AND SERVILIAN, MM. at Rome, ist cent.
SS. VICTOR, ZOTICUS AND COMP., MM. at Nicomedia, A.D. 303.
S. MARCELUNDS, 5. ofEmbrun, th cent.
S. THEOTIMUS, B. at Vomi, in Scythia, beginning of $th cent.
S. THEODORE TRICHINAS, H. near Constantinople.
S. HUGH OF ANCV-LB-DUC, Monk, O.S.B. in the diocese of Autun t cire,
A.D. 930.
VBN. ODE, r. at nilerellle, in Belgium t A.D. u$8
S. HILDEOUND, V. at Sehonau t in Germany, A.O. 1188.
S. AGNES, f., O.S.D, at Monte Puldano, A.D. 1317.
B. ALBERT, Boy M. in Poland, A.D. i^gS. 1
SS. VICTOR, ZOTICUS AND COMPANIONS, MM.
(A.D. 303.)
[Some of these martyrs on April i8th, the rest on the igth, in the
Menology of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitns, but all the rest on the
aoth, in the Mensea. Inserted in the Modern Roman Martyrology, and
by Tamayus Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology, on the authority of that
notorious forgery, the Pseudo-Dexter. The forger of this Chronicle,
Hieron. Romanus de Higuera, S. J. at the end of the i6th cent, made all
these martyrs suffer at Sanguessa, in N. Spain, on the river Arugnon. J
IAINTS VICTOR, ZOTICUS, ACINDYNUS,
ZENO, C^ESARIUS, SEVERIAN, CHRIS-
TOPHER, THEONAS, AND ANTONINUS,
are the names of certain men who saw S.
George undergo his various tortures, and filled with aston-
ishment^ confessed Christ, and were condemned to exe-
cution by the sword. The authority for these is the Greek
Mensea and Menology, resting on the fabulous Greek
Acts of S. George.
1 Another child said to have been killed by the Jews.
April 20.] Tkeotimus. 251
S. THEOTIMUS, B. OF TOML
(BEGINNING OF 5TH CENT.)
[Roman Marryrology. Authority : Sozomen, lib. vii. & 25 ; viii.
a 14 ; Socrates, lib. -vi. c. 11.]
S. THEOTIMUS the Philosopher, bishop of Tomi, in
Scythia, had been brought up in the philosophical schools
of Greece, and imbued with their systems; but he re-
nounced heathenism, embraced Christianity, and was after-
wards elevated to the bishopric of Tomi. He was present
at the end of the 4th century at a Synod held at Constanti-
nople for the condemnation of the works of Origen. S.
Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, having shewn great hostility
towards this father, S. Theotimus defended Origen. He
was prepared to condemn certain erroneous views advocated
by Origen, but not to envelope all his valuable writings in
one sweeping condemnation; and the synod agreed with
him. The sanctity of his life, and his miraculous powers,
drew upon him the respect of the barbarians amongst whom
his lot was cast, and contributed to facilitate their conversion.
& MARCELLINUS, B, OF EMBRUN.
(4TH CENT.)
[Roman and Galilean Martyrologies. Authority : Mention by Gregory
of Tours.]
ACCORDING to the legend, Marcellinus, bishop of Em-
brun in Gaul, converted the kst Pagan in his city. At
table one day a man confessed he was the only Pagan
remaining in Embrun, and that a miracle would alone con-
vert him. As he spoke, his glass fell on the ground and
broke, Marcellinus took up the pieces, and restored the
gkss as it was before.
252 Lives of the Saints.
VEN, ODE, V.
(A.D. 1158.)
[Norbertine and Belgian Martyrologies. Authority : A life by Philip
Harveng, abbot of Bonne-Esperance, (d. after n8o.)j
THIS is the strange story of a very determined woman.
Ode was the daughter of a gentleman named Wibert, in
Brabant From an early age she dedicated herself, her
heart her mind, her body, and her time to God, and it
became abundantly clear to the father that his daughter was
bent on becoming a nun. He resolved to prevent her. A
young, handsome, and well-born nobleman, named Simon,
was decided upon to be the husband of Ode, and the day
for the marriage was chosen, without the young girl being
in the least aware what was being arranged. Suddenly,
one morning, her mother informed her that in a few days she
would become the wife of Simon. From that moment the
house was in confusion. Every preparation was made for a
magnificent wedding. Dresses and jewels were tried on
the passive Ode, relations were invited, excitement was
general, Ode alone remained calm, with an impenetrable
look in her eyes. The wedding day dawned, she was
arranged in her bridal gown and veil, and the myrtle
wreath was twined around her brow. The bride's pro-
cession moved into the chapel, and took up its place
beside that of the bridegroom. The priest began the
marriage service, and proceeded as far as to ask Ode if she
would take Simon to be her wedded husband She closed
her lips and remained silent . The priest waited, and one
of the ladies present whispered to her that it was false
modesty to make no reply. The priest repeated his
question. -"Wilt thou have this man Simon to be thy
wedded husband?" Then Ode lifted up her head and
said, "I will not" The dismay at this clearly expressed
*
April 20.] Ven. Ode, V. 253
refusal was general. The bridegroom expectant, turning
scarlet, rushed to the church door, mounted the first
horse he found, and galloped home. Wibert, in a paroxysm
of vexation and rage, dashed out, mounted another horse,
and pursued him. Ode returned composedly from the
chapel to her room. An hour later she heard the clatter of
horse hoofs in the yard, looked forth, and saw her father
and the bridegroom returned. Wibert asked for his daughter,
rushed to her room, struck at the door, and insisted on her
coming forth to complete the broken ceremony. The door
remained fast bolted. He threatened to break it Then
Ode threw the door open, and came forth to give her hand
to the expectant Simon. With a razor she had cut off her
nose. Her mother shrieked and fainted, her father stood
rigid and silent; the bridegroom expectant swore, and
springing on his horse fled again to return no more.
After this, as may well be imagined, her parents desisted
from their attempt to force their child into a condition of
life for which she felt no vocation, and gave her their free
permission to enter the cloister. She became a Norbertine
canoness in the priory of Bonne Esperance, near Binche,
in Hainault, where she made herself remarkable by her
virtues, her docility, patience, and self-restraint. It pleased
God to afHict her with a grievous malady, which was sup-
posed to be leprosy, and she was therefore condemned to
live apart from her community. But she bore her affliction
and isolation with perfect resignation to the will of God.
There can be no doubt, from the description given of the
disorder by her biographer, that what she suffered from was
skoriasis in the face. After having suffered from this
distressing and disfiguring malady for some while, she was
cured, and the nuns elected her to be their prioress, on the
death of their superior. She filled this office with great
prudence, and died on the 2oth of April, 1158, and was
buried at Bonne Esperance, near Villireille.
254 Lives of the Saints. cA P rii 2 a
S. HILDEGUND, V.
(A.D. 1188.)
[Canisius in his German Martyrology, Molanus in his additions to
Usuardus, Wyon in his Monastic Martyrology, The claims of Hildegund
to sanctity rest on no good grounds. She has never been canonized.
Authority: A life written by a priest, ber master. All the earlier
part was taken from her own account, and this he wrote at the request
of the brethren, because of the circulation of other accounts of her
early life which were not altogether correct. Another life of S.
Hildegund by Csesarius of Heisterbach, drawn from accounts of eye-
witnesses.!
AT Neuss on the Rhine lived a knight and his lady, who
were long childless, but at length God looked on his hand-
maiden, and she became the mother of twin daughters, who
were baptised by the names of Hildegund and Agnes. The
little girls were placed by their parents in a convent at
Neuss to be educated. The mother died of a fever, and
the old knight, who had long meditated an expedition to
the Holy Land, now that his wife was no more, feeling
" freer and more joyous," as the historian quaintly observes,
withdrew the little Hildegund from the convent, cut her
hair shorty dressed her as a boy, and started with his child
on the long journey. Hildegund passed as his son, and was
called Joseph. On the voyage the old man falling sick,
commended the child to a fellow countryman who was on the
same vessel. Then he died and was thrown overboard.
At Acre, the man to whose charge she had been given,
stole her clothes and all the money that her father had left,
and escaped, whilst she lay curled up asleep in a corner of
the caravanserai On waking, Hildegund ran about crying.
Her helpless condition excited the compassion of a good
man who was passing through Acre, and he took the child
with him to Jerusalem, where he placed her in the hostel of
the Knights Templars. There she remained, till chance
M-
*
April 2o.j S. Hildegund. 255
brought to Jerusalem a distant kinsman of her father, who,
having heard that his relative had started for Jerusalem,
went about the city making inquiries for him. When he
came to the hostel of the Templars, Hildegund told him
that her father was dead, and that she was his son Joseph.
He took her with him on his return voyage to Germany,
but he also died before he reached the Rhine. She had
now grown up a tall, slender stripling, active, handsome,
bronzed with the Eastern sun, still in boy's clothes, with
short locks. And so attached was she to the freedom of
this dress, and the protection it afforded her, that she still
concealed her sex.
On reaching Cologne she offered herself as servant lad to
an old canon of the cathedral, and was engaged by him.
But before she gave attention to her future, her first act was
to offer thanks to God for having protected her in cold and
and heat, from the violence of men and savage beasts, and
kept her innocence intact in the midst of so many and
great dangers.
Now it happened that the sister of this canon was in the
convent of S. Ursula at Cologne; and the superiorship
being vacant, she was elected by a large majority of the
sisters to fill it But among the nuns was the niece of the
archbishop, Philip of Heinsberg, and the minority were in
favour of electing her. 1 The archbishop threw all his
weight into the scale, to obtain the office for his niece, and
the canon was obliged to appeal to Rome against him. At
this time there was a schism in the Church of Treves. The
clergy and people had elected one Volmar, count of
Bliescastel, to be their bishop, whereas the emperor,
Frederick Barbarossa, had nominated Rudolf, count ofWied;
and as the clergy of Treves were resolved on an appeal to
Rome against him, the Emperor forbade any such appeals
1 The writer of this life was himself mixed up in this controversy, as he tells us.
256 Lives of the Saints.
being carried out in Germany, on pain of death. It was
therefore difficult for the canon to obtain redress against his
archbishop. After maturely considering the feasibility of
conveying an appeal to the pope, he resolved on despatch-
ing it by Joseph, inclosed in a hollow walking-stick, and
visiting Verona, where the pope then was, himself person-
ally to support the appeal. Accordingly they started on their
journey, the canon on horseback, ambling leisurely along,
Joseph lightly running by his side. But when they reached
Zusmarshausen, in Swabia, it was deemed expedient that,
for greater security, they should part company. Here the
expedition of poor Joseph well nigh came to an untimely
end; for as he left Zusmarshausen early in the morning, and
was making his way through the wood, he lighted on a
man with a sack, who, pretending that he had left some-
thing behind which he wanted to recover, asked Joseph to
sit down on his sack till his return. Now this fellow was a
burglar who had broken into a house during the night, and
had carried off a sackful of plate ; but finding that he was
pursued, adopted this means of throwing his pursuers off
the scent, whilst he made off with some of the more port-
able valuables. Joseph was seized, beaten, and dragged
back into the town. There could be no question as to his
guilt Was he not found escaping through the forest with
the stolen articles ? Accordingly his denials and tears were
disregarded, and he was condemned to be hung. Then he
begged that a priest might be sent for, and to him he
disclosed the secret of his journey, and showed him his
hollow stick. The priest at once went out to the people, and
begged them not to insist on the execution of the lad till
they had ascertained that there was no truth in his story ;
but to beat up the wood, and search for the man he
accused. The people saw the justice of this advice, and
spread through the wood, where they soon captured the
*
April 20.3 ,5". Hildegund. 257
real thief, with the valuables upon him, and without further
investigation hung him on the first tree, and liberated
Joseph. The lad remained a day or two in Zusmarshausen,
and then started on his journey. But now the friends of
the man who had been hung were waiting for him, and he
had no sooner set foot within the wood, than they sur-
rounded him, strung him up to the tree beside the dead
burglar, and took to their heels. Providentially they were
in too great haste to execute this work very thoroughly,
and some shepherds coming by shortly after cut him down.
The pressure of blood on the brain of the strangling girl,
produced much the same effect as does drowning, and she
thought she was in a warm and sunny spot, supported by
angels' wings. On her opening her eyes, a knight in gay
armour mounted on a white horse, standing among the
green bushes, seemed to her an angel come to her assist-
ance, and when he took her up on his pommel, and
allowed her to fall asleep with his strong arms round her,
and her head nodding on his bosom, as he spurred along
the road to Augsburg, all doubt as to his being an arch-
angel vanished clean away. He conducted Joseph as far
as Verona, whither he was bound, and there left her. At
Verona she met the canon, her master, and they continued
their journey together to Rome. On their return, Joseph
left the service of the canon, attracted by the excellence of
the schools at Spires, and lodged in the house of a pious
recluse named Mathilda. She did not remain there long,
for making the acquaintance of an old knight, named
Berchthold, who had retired from the world into the
Benedictine monastery at Schonau, as a lay brother, the
old man persuaded Joseph to accompany him thither, and
embrace the religious life. There she received the tonsure,
and was admitted among the novices. The writer of the
biography says, " I had then been received at Schonau,
VOL. iv. 17
*
258 Lives of the Saints. [A P rn ao .
and had been placed in the house of probation. And the
Lord Abbot Gottfried, that vessel elect, full of all virtues, a
burning and a shining light, hearing Joseph reading and
chanting among his brethren, and finding him to be very
backward in his learning, for some reason, why I know
not, he commended Joseph to my care to be directed and
instructed, in the house of probationers. Thus were we
living among the brethren, reading, studying, day and night
observing the discipline of the house exactly, and as it
pleased God, making daily advance. And to tell the
truth, in or out, Joseph conducted himself irreproachably,
making himself liked by all for his amiability, not regarding
his delicacy of constitution, but subjecting himself to hard
labour, carrying stones and timber from the forest, fasting
and watching, and conducting himself as a stout man rather
than as a tender woman."
However, there was yet somewhat of mother Eve in her
composition, for one day Joseph, and a lad of fourteen,
named Hermann, who was in the same school, were at
their dinner, when the master's back being turned, Joseph
nudged Hermann and bade him put his face beside hers,
and look at the reflection of their faces in the wine-cup.
" Hermann/' said Joseph, "what do you think of my face,
is it not pretty ?" " Bah !" said the little boy, "you are as
vain as a woman." Then suddenly the master, turning,
caught them talking, and they both received a whipping.
About the same time, and possibly on account of this
whipping, Joseph got very tired of being in the monastery
school, and the craving for her old roving life returned
upon her. Three times did she attempt to run away, and
was thrice restrained from doing so ; the last time by a
sudden pain in the chest, undoubted pleurisy, from which
she died. And then only, to the amazement of the monks,
was it discovered that Joseph was a girL The whole
*-
April aoj
1 Hildegund.
259
monastery was thrown into excitement, and when the body
was brought into the choir and laid with the face uncovered
before the altar, not one of the monks could refrain from
tears. The abbot so far restrained himself as to recite the
customary prayers, but not one of the monks could pluck
up voice to sing the Amen. As Joseph had often talked of
his sister Agnes at Neuss, a messenger was sent there to
enquire into the real name of their young novice. The
abbess sent back word that Agnes was dead, and that her
twin sister's name was Hildegund, who had gone to the
Holy Land with her father, and had not been heard of
since.
As will be seen from this charming story, about the
truth of which there cannot be a question, there is really
nothing whatever in the life of Hildegund which can entitle
her to be called a saint But the romance of her story
made her to be canonized by the popular voice, whereupon
certain modern compilers of Martyrologies inserted her in
their kalendars.
The Children in the Pieiy Furnace Fiom the Catacombs
*-
-*
*
260 Lives of the Saints.
April 21.
S. SIMEON, M.S. ofSeleucta and Ctesiphon, A.D. 3f4
S. ANASTASIUS THE SINAITE, Mk. in Arabia^ circ. A.D. 600.
S. BEUNO, Ab.of Clynnog, in Caernarvon, A.D. >jth Cent.
S. ENEON, or EINGAN, H. at Llyn, in Bangor, circ. A.D. 590.
S. WOLBOD, B. of Liege, *.o. 1021.
S. ANSELM, Archb. of Canterbury^ A.D. 1109.
S. SIMEON, M.B. OF CTESIPHON.
(A.D. 344.)
[Roman Martyrology. Ado, Usuardus, Notker. The Menology of the
emperor Basil on April i4th ; but in the Menaea on April i7th. Authority
Sozomen, Hist. Eccles., lib. ii., c. 8, 9. Also the Genuine Acts, pub-
lished by Assemani, written in Chaldee by S. Maruthas.]
JAINT SIMEON, bishop of Seleucia and Ctesi-
phon in Persia, was accused, about the year 344,
to king Sapor, of being a friend of the Roman
emperor, and in secret correspondence with him,
This accusation exceedingly exasperated Sapor against the
Christians in his dominions, and he ordered the execution
of all the Christian priests. Simeon was laden with chains,
and was brought before him. The king endeavoured to
iorce him to adore the sun, but finding him resolute, he
ordered him and a hundred other Christians to lose their
heads.
S. Simeon was the son of a fuller, and had been the dis-
ciple of Papas, bishop of Ctesiphon, and had been made
his coadjutor in 316. He sent a priest to the Council of
Nicasa, to act as his deputy, as he was unable to attend
himself!
*
21.] 5. Anselm. 261
S. ANSELM, ARCHB. OF CANTERBURY.
(A.D. 1109.)
[Roman, Anglican, and Monastic Martyrologies. Authorities : His
life by Eadmer, his friend, (d. circ. 1124.) Ordericus Vitalis (d. 1142),
Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), William of Malmesbury (d. 1141). A
very full and beautiful life of S. Anselm has been written by Dean Church,
from which this brief notice is condensed.]
THE scene of S. Anselm's birth-place, Aosta, is familiar
to the crowds who are yearly attracted to the neighbourhood
by the love of Alpine grandeur, and the interest of Alpine
adventure, and who pass through it on their way to and
from the peaks and valleys of the wonderful region round it
Closely overhanging the city on the south, rises rapidly a
wall of sub-Alpine mountain, for great part of the day in
shadow, pierced by ravines, with woods and pastures hanging
on its steep flanks, but towering up at last into the dark
precipices of the Becca di Nona and the peak of Mont
Emilius. At the upper end of the valley towards the* west,
seen over a vista of walnuts, chestnuts and vines, appear
high up in the sky, resting as it were on the breast of the
great hills, the white glaciers of the Ruitor, bright in sun-
shine, or veiled in storms ; and from the bridge over the
torrent which rushes by the city from the north, the eye
goes up to the everlasting snows of the domed Velan, and
the broken pikes of the Grand Combin. The legends of
the valley have not forgotten Anselm; they identify the
village where he lived, Gressan the tower which was the
refuge of his family, the house in the suburbs of the city
where he was born ; in the sacristy of the cathedral they
show his relics along with those of the local saints, S.
Gratus and S. Jucundus.
The parents of Anselm were accounted noble, and had
property, for which they paid homage as vassals to the
262 Lives of the Saints.
count of Maurienne. His father was an unthrifty and
violent man; his mother a good woman and a prudent
house-wife, who used to talk to her child, as mothers do,
about God, and his saints, and of heaven. Anselm was
born about 1033, and from his boyhood he seems to have
been a student^ and felt early the common attractions of
the age , for the monastic life. Then came a time of reac-
tion ; health and youth and prospenty were pleasant, and
put the thoughts of a religious life out of his mind. Even
his keen love of study gave way before the gaieties and
sports of his time of life. His affection for his mother was
a partial restraint on him; but when she died, "the ship of
his heart lost its anchor, and drifted off altogether into the
waves of the world."
But family disagreements sprang up. His biographer,
perhaps Anselm himself too in after life, saw the hand of
Providence in his father's harshness to him, which no sub-
mission could soften, and which at last drove him in despair
to leave his home, and after the fashion of his countrymen
to seek his fortune in strange lands. He crossed Mont
Cenis with a single clerk for his attendant, and he did not
forget the risk and fatigue of the passage. He spent three
years in France and Burgundy, and then, following the
track of another Italian, Lanfranc of Pavia, he came to
Normandy, and remained for a time at Avranches, where
Lanfranc had once taught Finally, he followed Lanfranc,
now a famous master, to the monastery where he had be-
come prior, the newly-founded monastery of Bee. Bee was
a school as well, and there Anselm, along with other young
men whom the growing wish to learn had drawn thither,
settled himself, not as a monk but as a student^ under
Lanfranc. Teacher and pupil, besides both being Italians,
had much to draw them together; and a friendship began
between them, which, in spite of the difference between the
*-
ax.] Anselm. 263
two men, and the perhaps unconscious reserve occasioned by
it, continued to the last, genuine and unbroken. Lanfranc
was a man of strong practical genius. Anselm was an original
thinker of extraordinary daring and subtlety. But the two
men had high aims in common; they knew what they
meant, and they understood each other's varied capacities
for their common task. They found themselves among a
race of men of singular energies and great ambition, but at
a very low level of knowledge, and with a very low standard
of morality ; illiterate, undisciplined, lawless. To educate
and to reform, to awaken the Normans to the interest of
letters and the idea of duty, were the double object of both
Lanfranc and Anselm, the key to their unwearied zeal to
reorganize and infuse fresh vigour into the monastic system.
When Anselm had, as we should say, followed Lanfranc's
lectures for some time, the question presented itself to what
use he should devote his life. His father's inheritance had
fallen to him ; should he be a monk at Bee, a hermit in the
wilds,, or a noble in his father's house, administering his
patrimony for the poor? He put himself into Lanfranc's
hands. Lanfranc referred him to the archbishop of Rouen.
The archbishop advised him to become a monk. It is
hard to see what better advice in those times he could have
given to a man consumed by the passion at once for know-
ledge and for the highest ideal of life. Anselm became a
monk at Bee in the twenty-seventh year of his age, in 1060;
in three years' time he succeeded Lanfranc as prior ; fifteen
years after this, in 1078, Herluin, the founder, died, and
Anselm was chosen abbot; and he governed Bee as abbot
for thirteen years more. Lanfranc had set a high example ;
he was the kindler of light and force among the Norman
clergy. Anselm carried on his work But it would not be
easy to find two more different men. Lanfranc's equal
might be found among many distinguished churchmen of
264 Lives of the Saints.
the Middle Ages. The man who succeeded him was one
who, to a child-like singleness and tenderness of heart,
joined an originality and power of thought which rank him,
even to this day, among the few discoverers of new paths in
philosophical speculation. Fixed at Bee, the philosophic
inquirer settled to his toil, and reverently and religiously,
yet fearlessly, gave his reason its range. His biographer
records the astonishment caused by his attempts to "un-
ravel the darkest, and before his time the unsolved or
unusual questions concerning the Divine Nature, and our
faith, which lay hid, covered by much darkness, in the
Divine Scriptures." The men of his day, as we see, recog-
nized in him something more than common as an enquirer
and a thinker ; but it was reserved for much later times to
discern how great he was. The fruits of his activity at Bee
are shown in two works which have gained him his place
among the great thinkers of Christian Europe two short
treatises on the deepest foundations of all religion, examples
of the most severe and abstruse exercise of mind. The
first of these is the " Monologium," an investigation of what
reason alone shows God to be. It is an argument from
ideas) in the sense in which Plato spoke of them, as grounds
accounting to reason for all that is matter of experience.
But he was not satisfied with the Monologium, a chain
consisting of many links, and he was tormented with the
longing to discover some one argument short, simple, self-
sufficing by which to demonstrate in a clear and certain
manner the existence and perfections of God. Often on
the point of grasping what he sought, and as often baffled
by what escaped his hold, unable in his anxiety to sleep or
to take his meals, he despaired of his purpose ; but the
passionate desire would not leave him. It intruded on his
prayers, and interrupted his duties, till it came to appear to
him like a temptation of the devil. At last, in the watches
April 21.] ,51 Anselm. 265
of the night, in the very stress of his efforts to keep off the
haunting idea, "in the agony and conflict of his thoughts,"
the thing which he had so long given up hoping for pre-
sented itself, and filled him with joy. The result was the
famous argument of the " Proslogion," the argument which
was revived by Descartes, and which has been accepted by
Hegel, the objective reality of the idea, or that the notion
of God in the human mind necessarily involves the reality
of the idea.
But Anselm was not only a thinker ; he was eminently a
teacher. His chief care was devoted to the young men in
his school, whose minds were to be formed for work to
come, and who were not too old to learn, or to be kindled
with high purposes, and quickened into fresh enterprises of
thought Gifted with singularly keen insight into men's
hearts, and with quick and wide sympathy, Anselm's in-
fluence reached to wherever he came in contact with men,
inside his monastery or without The words of Christ and
Heaven were ever on his lips, but they were words for all.
His correspondence shows how, as time went on, his rela-
tions with persons of all classes extended ; and he cared for
all, and willingly worked for all. Whole days, says Eadmer,
he would spend in giving advice to those who claimed it,
and then the night would be spent in correcting the ill-
written copies of books for the library. His care and his
toil were for all within his spiritual household, and flowed
over beyond it; but his love and his interest were for the
younger men, for minds not yet dulled to the wonder and
great ends of living.
Why the young turned so enthusiastically to one who
thus sympathised with them, may be understood from the
following conversation, in which Anselm's good sense and
freedom of mind appear in contrast with the current ideas
of his time, which were not those of the eleventh century
*-
266 Lives of the Saints.
only. An abbot, says Eadmer, who was looked upon as a
very religious man, was one day deploring to Anselm the
impossibility of making any impression on the boys who
were brought up in his monastery. " What are we to do
with them?" he asked in despair. " Do what we will they
are perverse and incorrigible; we do not cease beating
them day and night, and they only get worse." " What do
they turn into when they grow up?" asked Anselm. "They
turn only dull and brutal," was the answer, " what are we
to do with them? In every way we constrain them to
improve, and it is no use." " Comtrain them !" exclaimed
Anselm. " Tell me, my lord abbot, if you planted a tree
in your garden, and tied it up on all sides, so that it could
not stretch forth its branches, what sort of tree would it
turn out when, after some years, you gave it room to
spread ? Would it not be good for nothing, full of tangled
and crooked boughs ? And whose fault would this be but
yours, who had put such constant restraint upon it ? And
this is just what you do with your boys. You plant them
in the garden of the Church that they may grow and bear
fruit to God. But you cramp them round to such a degree
with terrors and threats and blows, that they are utterly
debarred from the enjoyment of any freedom. And thus
injudiciously kept down, they collect in their minds evil
thoughts tangled like thorns ; they cherish and feed them,
and with dogged temper elude all that might help to
correct them. And hence it comes thus."
A strange and touching history in Eadmer strange
with those ways of thought^ which their unquestioned
naturalness then render doubly wonderful now, touching
from that depth of affection which all times know and can
understand shows how Anselm had learned his own
lesson. When he was made prior, after only three years'
profession, over the heads of the older inmates of Bee, a
April 2i.] ,51 Anselm. 267
strong feeling of jealousy was shown, and a party formed
against him in the monastery. With them was one of the
younger monks, named Osbern, whose hatred of Anselm
was extreme, who pursued him with the "savageness of a
dog" (canino more). Anselm, who saw that he had
character and talent, began by the most forbearing and
immovable good-humour, and by giving him in return the
fullest indulgence compatible with the discipline of the
house. In time Osbern was softened, and became deeply
attached to him. Then, gaining influence over him,
Anselm step by step withdrew the early indulgences, and
accustomed him to the severities of the monastic life,
"punishing him not only with words but with stripes."
Osbern stood the test, and was ripening into manly strength.
But there came a fatal illness. Then Anselm watched and
waited on him like a mother; "day and night was at his
bedside, gave him his food and drink, ministered to all his
wants, did everything himself that might ease his body and
comfort his soul." When the end came, and Osbern was
dying, Anselm gave him a last charge. He bade him,
speaking as friend to friend, to make known after his
death, if it were possible, what had become of him. " He
promised and passed away." During the funeral Anselm
sat apart in a corner of the church, to weep and pray for
his friend; he fell asleep from heaviness and sorrow, and
had a dream. He saw certain very reverend persons enter
the room where Osbern had died, and sit round for judg-
ment ; and while he was wondering what the doom would
be, Osbern himself appeared, like a man just recovering
from illness, or pale with loss of blood. Three times, he
said, had the old serpent risen up against him, but three
times he fell backwards, and " the Bearward of the Lord
(Ursarius Domini) had delivered him." Then Anselm
awoke, and believed that Osbern's sins were pardoned, and
268 Lives of the Saints. [April 3 i
that God's angels had kept off his foes " as the bearwards
keep off the bears." Death did not seem to break the
friendship. Osbern's memory was in Anselm's prayers,
and his letters show how deep and tender was the sur-
viving affection. He prays his friends to offer for Osbern
the prayers and masses which they would offer for himself.
" Wherever Osbern is," he writes to his friend Gundulf,
"his soul is my soul. Let me, then, while I am alive,
receive in him whatever I might have hoped to receive
from friendship when I am dead ; so that then they need
do nothing for me. Farewell ! farewell ! mi carissime ;
and that I may recompense you according to your impor-
tunity, I pray, and I pray, and I pray, remember me, and
forget not the soul of Osbern my beloved. If I seem to
burden you too much, then forget me and remember him."
Whatever the shape in which such feelings clothe them-
selves, they are not less real for their shape; and to all
who feel the mystery and obscurity of our condition, that
deep reality will gain their respect and sympathy. Eadmer,
or some other of his friends, made a collection of his say-
ings and comparisons, and his common modes of present-
ing moral and religious topics, very miscellaneous in
selection, and unequal in worth, but giving probably an
unstudied representation of his ordinary manner of dis-
course. "He taught," says Eadmer, "not as is the wont
with others, but in a widely different fashion, setting forth
each point under common and familiar examples, and
supporting it by the strength of solid reasons, without any
veils or disguises of speech." There is a touch of grim
appreciation of the ludicrous in his comparison of himself,
peacefully living with his monks, or going forth among men
of the world, to the fate of the owl which ventures into the
day; while she sits with her "little ones in her cave, she
is happy, and it is well with her; but when she falls among
*- _ ^
*
April 3i.j , Anselm. 269
the crows and rooks, and other birds, one attacks her with
beak, another with claws, another buffets her with wings,
and it goes ill with the owl." There is a deeper touch of
sympathy for distress and suffering in the story of the hare,
which, when he was riding one day, after he had become
archbishop, from Windsor to Hayes, the young men about
him started and chased with their dogs. The hare took
refuge under the feet of his horse. Anselm reined in his
horse, and forbade them to hurt the creature, while, so the
story goes, the dogs surrounded the hare and licked it,
doing it no harm. When the soldiers crowded round with
noisy triumph at the capture, Anselm burst into tears.
" You laugh," he said, " but for the poor unhappy creature
there is nothing to laugh at or be glad for ; its mortal foes
are about it, and it flies to us for life, in its own way
beseeching for shelter. You see the image of the departing
soul of man." Then he rode on, and with loud voice for-
bade that the dogs should touch the hare; and the creature,
glad and at liberty, darted off to the fields and woods.
In the year 1078, Anselm became abbot, and his
connection with England began. Bee, with the other
Norman abbeys, had since the Conquest received posses-
sions in England, and the new abbot went over to view the
abbey lands, and to visit his old master, Lanfranc. At
Canterbury he was welcomed at the great monastery, and
became one with the brotherhood of its monks, most of
them probably Englishmen. There he made the acquain-
tance of Eadmer, then a stripling; and Eadmefs first
remembrance of him seems to be of the brotherly way
in which he lived with the English monks, and of the
original and unusual way in which, in his discourses in
cloister or in chapter, he put before them the aims and
duties of their state. Lanfranc was then full of the
changes which he wished to introduce into the monastic
* *
2 TO Lives of the Saints.
and ecclesiastical organization of England ; and Anselm,
though he undoubtedly fully sympathised with his master's
object, used his influence to temper Lanfranc's sternness,
and soften his Norman and Latin prejudices. Ans'elm, no
Norman, and with a larger heart than the Normans, warmed
towards the English with something of the love and sym-
pathy which had filled the soul of the great Roman pope
who sent us S. Augustine; and the respect which he
showed to the defeated race, impressed the foreigners who
had become their masters. In his visit, more than once
repeated, to the abbey lands about England, he became
known. Eadmer dwells especially on the contrast between
his way of teaching and that customary with others, and on
his preference for plain reasons, popular illustrations, and
straightforward speech which all could understand. He
was welcome to old and young, rich and poor; he touched
the hearts of English monks, and won the respect of
Norman soldiers. But this general account is confirmed
by the effect of Anselm's character on William in his later
stem and gloomy days. "To all others so harsh and
terrible, in Anselm's presence he seemed, to the wonder of
the bystanders, another man, so gracious and easy of
speech." Years after, when king William was on his
forlorn deathbed, Anselm was the man whom he most
wished to see.
There can be no doubt that towards the end of the
Conqueror's reign the fame of the school of Bee was pre-
eminent in his dominions, above all other places of religion
and learning; and that, next to the illustrious name of its
creator, Lanfranc, was that of Anselm, his pupil and
successor at Bee. There can be little doubt, either, that
when Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury died, the thoughts
of all who looked upon him as the 'great ecclesiastical
leader of his day, turned to Anselm, as the man to carry on
S. Anselm. 271
his work. Everything pointed him out as the fittest man
that Normandy could fnrnish to take the great place which
Lanfranc had left vacant He would probably have been
the Conqueror's choice ; and by all who desired, for what-
ever reason, that the see of Canterbury should be filled in
a way suitable to its eminence and importance, he was
marked at once as the person whom it would most become
the Conqueror's son to choose.
But for such appointments, which had been a matter of
great consequence with his father, William the Red had
little care. Lanfranc was gone, and Ralph Flambard was
the king's new counsellor ; and even that age of violence
was shocked when, instead of naming an archbishop of
Canterbury, the king of England seized the possessions of
the see, and, that he might rack its revenues, refused to fill
it up. For nearly four years this lasted, and the patience
with which the scandal was endured, keenly felt as it was
even by the rough barons of William's court, is the mea-
sure of what a bold bad king could do, who knew how to
use his power. A contemporary picture of the actual state
of things in a case like this is valuable. Eadmer was a
monk at Canterbury, and describes what passed before his
eyes. "The king," he says, "seized the church at Canter-
bury, the mother of all England, Scotland, and Ireland, and
the neighbouring isles ; all that belonged to it, within and
without, he caused to be inventoried by his officers ; and
after fixing an allowance for the support of the monks, who
there served God, he ordered the remainder to be set at a
rent and brought into his domain. So he put up the Church
of Christ to sale, giving the power of lordship over it to any
one who, with whatever damage to it, would bid the highest
price. Every year, in wretched succession, a new rent was
set; the king would allow no bargain to remain settled, but
whoever promised more ousted him who was paying less,
*
* --
272 Lives of the Saints.
unless the former tenant, giving up his original bargain,
came up of his own accord to the offer of the later bidder.
You might see, besides, every day, the most abandoned of
men on their business of collecting money for the king,
marching about the cloisters of the monastery, regardless of
the religious rule of God's servants, and with cruel and
threatening looks, giving their orders on all sides ; uttering
menaces, lording it over every one, and showing their power
to the utmost. What scandals and quarrels and irregulari-
ties arose from this I hate to remember. The monks of the
Church were some of them dispersed at the approach of the
mischief, and sent to other houses, and those who remained
suffered many tribulations and indignities. What shall I
say of the Church tenants, who were ground down by such
wasting and misery; so that I might doubt, but for the evils
which followed, whether with bare life they could have been
more cruelly oppressed ? Nor did all this happen only at
Canterbury. The same savage cruelty raged in all her
daughter churches in England which, when bishop or abbot
died, at that time fell into widowhood. And this king, too,
was the first who ordained this woeful oppression against the
churches of God ; he had inherited nothing of this sort from
his father; he alone, when the churches were vacant, kept
them in his own hands. And thus wherever you looked,
there was wretchedness before your eyes; and this distress
lasted for nearly five years over the Church of Canterbury,
always increasing, always, as time went on, growing more
cruel and evil"
In the year 1092 Hugh of Avranches, earl of Chester, an
old friend of Anselm's, invited him over to England to
organize a house in which he had instituted monks for
seculars, S. Werburga's at Chester. Hugh the Wolf, one of
the Conqueror's march lords on the Welsh border, is painted
for us with much vividness in one of the rude but vigorous
April 31.3 S. Anselm. 273
portraits which Orderic liked to draw, a violent, loose-living,
but generous barbarian, honouring self-control and a re-
ligious life in others, though he had little of it himself;
living for eating and drinking, for wild and wasteful hunting*
by which he damaged his own and his neighbour's lands ;
very open-handed, so fat that he could hardly stand ; very
fond of the noise and riotous company of a great following
of retainers, old and young, yet keeping about him also a
simple-minded religious chaplain, whom he had brought
with him from Avranches, and who did his best, undiscour-
aged, though the odds were much against him, to awaken a
sense of right in his wild flock. It is one of the puzzles of
those strange days, what there could have been in common
between earl Hugh and Anselm to have been the foundation
of the mutual regard which from old date seems to have
been acknowledged between them. Anselm, however, de-
clined the earl's invitation. It was already whispered about
that if he went to England he would be archbishop. Such
a change was, in truth, entirely against his own inclination
and habits of life, and he had made up his mind against
accepting it ; but he would not give room to suspicions by
seeming to put himself in the way of it. Again earl Hugh
sent for him; he was sick, and wanted the help of an old
friend. Anselm's sensitive conscience was perplexed; to
refuse to go seemed like putting the care of his own cha-
racter for disinterestedness above the wishes and perhaps
the real needs of one who had been from old time his
familiar friend. So, commending his intention and purpose
to God, he went to Boulogne and crossed to Dover. He
came to Canterbury, meaning to remain there the next day,
which was a festival ; but he was met with cries of welcome,
as the future archbishop, and he hurried away at once. At
the court, which he passed on his way to Chester, he was
received with great honour even by the king. There he
VOL. iv. 18
274 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii2i.
and the Red King had their first experience of one another.
At a private interview Anselm, instead of entering, as the
king expected, on the affairs of the monastery, laid before
him, in the unceremonious fashion of those times, the
complaints and charges which were in every one's mouth
against his government " Openly or secretly, things were
daily said of him by nearly all the men of his realm which
were not seemly for the king's dignity." It is not said how
William received the appeal, and they parted. Anselm
went to Chester, and found earl Hugh recovered. But the
affairs of Bee, and the ordering of the Chester monastery,
had still to be arranged, and Anselm was kept on nearly
five months in England. The talk about the archbishopric
dropped, and he ceased to think about it; but when he
wished to return to Normandy, the king refused to give him
the necessary leave to go out of the realm.
The nobles and bishops who had perhaps hoped that
Anselm's being on the spot might bring matters to a point,
and were disappointed at the king's showing no signs of
relenting, had recourse, in their despair of any direct in-
fluence, to a device which, even to Eadmer, seemed a most
extraordinary one, and treated their fierce king as if he
were an impracticable child who could only be worked
upon by roundabout means. By one of the quaintest of
all the quaint and original mixtures of simplicity and craft
of which the Middle Ages are full, it was proposed at the
meeting of the court at Gloucester at Christmas 1092, that
the king should be asked by his barons and bishops, who
were troubled and distressed at the vacancy of Canterbury,
to allow prayers to be said in all the churches of the realm
that God would put it into the king's heart to raise up the
widowed see from its scandalous and unprecedented deso-
lation. He was "somewhat indignant" at the suggestion
when it was first laid before him, but he assented to it,
April si.] S. Anselm. 275
adding, as his view of the matter, " that the Church might
ask what it liked, but he should not give up doing what he
chose." The bishops took him at his word, and the person
to whom they applied to draw up the form of prayer was
Anselm. Prayers were accordingly ordered throughout all
the churches of England, and the court broke up. When
the king's temper was sounded, he was as obstinate as ever.
One of his chief men in familiar talk spoke of the abbot of
Bee as the holiest man he had ever known; "he loved
God only, and, as was plain in all his ways, desired nothing
transitory." "Not even the archbishopric?" rejoined
William, with his characteristic scoff. The other main-
tained his opinion, and said that there were many who
thought the same. "If he thought that he had but the
least chance of it," said the king, " would he not dance and
clap his hands as he rushed to embrace it? But," he
added, "by the Holy Face of Lucca," (his usual oath,)
"neither he nor any one else at this time shall be arch-
bishop except myself." The king was still at Gloucester,
when, in the beginning of 1093, he was seized with a
dangerous illness The times were so unsettled, that the
anxiety caused by it brought back the bishops and great
men who had just dispersed. William thought himself
dying, and he looked back and looked forward with the
feelings so common in those days, when men were reckless
in health, and helpless in the hour of need. His barons as
well as his bishops spoke their minds plainly, and pressed
for reparation and amendment And now, as was natural,
the influence of a spiritual counsellor like Anselm was at
once thought of. He was staying, ignorant of the king's
illness, somewhere not far from Gloucester, when he was
summoned in all haste to attend upon the dying man.
The king, who believed himself and was believed by others
to be dying, was dying with the vacant archbishopric in his
276 Lives of the Saints.
possession and on his conscience. There could be no
question now with him about getting free from the perilous
load. But who was to be archbishop? All waited for the
king to name him. He named Anselm. Anselm, he said,
was most worthy of it When the king's choice was an-
nounced to Anselm, he trembled and turned pale. The
bishops came to bring him to the king, to receive the in-
vestiture of the archbishopric in the customary way, by the
delivery of a pastoral staff. Anselm absolutely refused to
go. At last they dragged him by main force to the sick
king's room. William, in his anguish and fear, was deeply
anxious about the matter, and entreated him with tears, by
the memory of his father and mother, who had been An-
selm's friends, to deliver their son from the deadly peril in
which he stood. The sick man's distress moved some of
the bystanders, and they turned with angry remonstrances
on Anselm. "What senseless folly this was I The king
could not bear this agitation. Anselm was embittering his
dying hours, and on him would rest the responsibility of all
the mischiefs that would follow, if he would not do his part
by accepting the pastoral charge." Anselm in his trouble
appealed for encouragement to two of his monks, Baldwin
and Eustace, who were with him. "Ah, my brethren, why
do not you help me?" "Might it have been the will of
God," he used to say, speaking of those moments, "I
would, if I had the choice, gladly have died, rather than
been raised to the archbishopric." Baldwin could only
speak of submitting to the will of God; and burst, says
Eadmer, into a passion of tears. Then the king bade them
all fall at Anselm's feet to implore his assent; he, in his
turn, fell down before them, still holding to his refusal.
Finally, they lost patience ; they were angry with him, and
with themselves for their own irresolution. The cry arose,
" A pastoral staff! a pastoral staff 1" They dragged him to
*-
Apm ax.] S. Anselm. 277
the king's bedside, and held out his right arm to receive
the staff. But when the king presented it, Anselrn kept his
hand firmly clenched, and would not take it They tried
by main force to wrench it open ; and when he cried out
with the pain of their violence, they at last held the staff
closely pressed against his still closed hand. Amid the
shouts of the crowd, "Long live the bishop," with the Te
Deum of the bishops and clergy, he was carried, rather
than led, to a neighbouring church, still crying out, " It is
nought that ye are doing, it is nought that ye are doing."
He himself describes the scene in a letter to his monks at
Bee. " It would have been difficult to make out whether
madmen were dragging along one in his senses, or sane
men a madman, save that they were chanting, and I, pale
with amazement and pain, looked more like one dead than
alive." From the church he went back to the king : " I
tell thee, my lord king," he said, "that thou shalt not die
of this sickness; and hence I wish thee to know how easily
thou mayest alter what has been done with me, for I have not
acknowledged nor do I acknowledge its validity." Then,
when he had left the king's chamber, he addressed the
bishops and nobles who were escorting him. They did not
know, he said, what they had been doing. They had
yoked together to the plough the untameable bull with the
old and feeble sheep, and no good would come of the
union. The plough was the Church of God, and the
plough in England was drawn by two strong oxen, the king
and the archbishop of Canterbury; the one by his justice
and power in things of this world, the other by his teaching
and governance in things divine. Then he returned to his
lodging. He was almost overcome and faint with distress ;
they brought him holy water and made him drink it This
happened on the First Sunday in Lent, March 6, 1093.
The king immediately ordered that he should be invested
*
#
278 Lives of the Saints,
with all the temporalities of the see, as Lanfranc had held
them. There was plainly no escape. His acceptance was
the one chance open for better things. If there was to be
an archbishop, it must be Anselm. On cooler thoughts, he
recognized what had happened as the will of God ; though,
as he said, whether in mercy or wrath, he could not tell,
and he bowed to it
But the king got well, and with health came regrets for
the engagements made on his sick-bed. " Then arose such
misery and suffering through the whole realm, that whoever
remembers it cannot remember to have seen anything like
it in England. All the evil which the king had done
before he was sick seemed good in comparison with the
evils which he did when restored to health." He seemed
to look back on his illness with fierce bitterness. Gundulf,
bishop of Rochester, an old pupil and friend of Anselm's at
Bee, and the king's chief architect, remonstrated. "Be
assured, bishop/' was the answer, perhaps in half-jest to
people who understood no jesting on such matters, " that,
by the Holy Face of Lucca, God shall never have me good
for the ill that He has brought on me." But he had shown
no wish to revoke Anselm's appointment On the 5th of
September he came to Canterbury, and was enthroned.
On the very day of the solemnity Ralph Flambard appeared
there, with his airs of insolence and his harshness, to dis-
turb the festivities by a suit in the king's name against some
of the archbishop's tenants. The people's minds were
deeply wounded at the insult; that "a man like Anselm
should not be allowed to pass the first days of his dignity
in peace." He himself took it as a presage of what
awaited him.
On the 4th of December, 1093, he was consecrated by
the archbishop of York, in the presence of nearly all the
English bishops. According to the old ritual, the Book of
April 21.] vSl Anselm. 279
the Gospels, opened at random, was laid on the shoulders
of the newly-consecrated prelate, and the passage at which
it opened was taken as a sort of omen of his episcopate.
The passage which turned up was, " He bade many, and
sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were
bidden, Come ; for all things are now ready. And they
all with one consent began to make excuse."
His first intercourse with the king was friendly, but it
was soon clouded. William was in the midst of his projects
against his brother Robert, and money was his great want
Among others who offered their presents, Anselm, urged
by his friends, brought five hundred marks. But Anselm's
five hundred marks were refused. He went to the king
and expostulated. " It was his first present, but not his
last, and a free gift was better than a forced and servile
contribution." His words implied a reproof of the king's
system of extortion, and William answered angrily that he
wanted neither his money nor his scolding, and bade him
begone. Anselm thought, says Eadmer, of the words of
the Gospel which had been read on the day when he first
entered his cathedral " No man can serve two masters."
But the refusal was a relief. A sum of money in the shape
of a free gift, after a man was consecrated, was one of the
ways in which Church offices were sold and bought Im-
placable opposition to this system was one of the mam
points in the policy of the reforming party with whom
Anselm sympathised. He congratulated himself that he
was saved even from the appearance of a corrupt bargain
for the archbishopric. He was urged to regain the king's
favour by doubling his present, but he refused ; he gave
away the money to the poor, and left the court when the
Christmas festival was over. He soon met William again.
With the rest of the great men of England he was sum-
moned in February 1094, to meet the king at Hastings,
280 Lives of the Saints.
where he was waiting for a fair wind to carry him over to
Normandy. He wanted some check to the unbridled
licence of manners to which the contemporary chronicles
bear ample and detailed evidence ; and he wanted impor-
tant religious posts, like those of the abbots of the monas-
teries, to be filled up. The customary remedy for disorders,
well known in England as in Normandy, was a council of
bishops, meeting with the king's sanction, whose regulations
were to be backed by his authority, Anselm asked for
such a council, "by which Christian religion, which had
well-nigh perished in many men, might be restored," and
the influence of its teachers revived and strengthened.
William demurred. He would call a council only at his
own time, when he pleased, not when Anselm pleased;
and, with a sneer, he asked what the council was to be
about? "The whole land/' said Anselm, "unless judg-
ment and discipline are exercised in earnest, will soon be a
Sodom." William was not pleased, and answered shortly,
"What good would come of this matter for you?" "II
not for me, at least, I hope, for God and for you."
"Enough," said the king, "talk to me no more about it"
Anselm thought that in these ungracious answers the old
anger about the money might be working ; and he resolved
to send a message by the bishops asking for the king's
friendship. "If he will not give it me, let him say why; ii
I have offended, I am ready to make amends." "No," the
king answered ; " I have nothing to accuse him of; but I
will not grant him my favour, because I do not hear any
reason why I should." The bishops brought him back the
reply, and Anselm asked what he meant by "not hearing
why he should." The bishops saw no difficulty in under-
standing him. "The mystery," they said, "is plain. If
you want peace with him, you must give him money."
"Give him the five hundred marks you offered," was
-*
April ai. 6". Anselm. 281
their advice, " and promise as much more, and he will give
you back his friendship. We see no other way of getting
out of the difficulty, and we have no other for ourselves/*
"Far be it from me," said Anselm, "to take this way out
of it" When William was told of this, he sent back the
following answer: "Yesterday I hated him much, to-day
still more; to-morrow and ever after he may be sure I shall
hate him with more bitter hatred. As father and archbishop
I will never hold him more ; his blessings and prayers I
utterly abhor and refuse."
The signs of the approaching storm had shown them-
selves. William had found that the new archbishishop was
not a man to be frightened by rough words into compliance
with arbitrary and unreasonable demands. Anselm had
found what he had anticipated, that the king, once more in
health, with his political objects before him and his need of
money pressing him, would not listen to remonstrances, nor
change his ways. Naturally enough, the king thought he had
made a great mistake in forcing the archbishopric on Anselm.
He began to think how he could force it from him. Occa-
sions for attempting this were not likely to be wanting.
But William was absent for a while in Normandy, and
the evil day was postponed. On his return, however, it
broke out afresh. A new cause of difference was opened
between him and Anselm. The rule had been established
by the popes, and accepted by Western Christendom,
that a metropolitan must go to Rome to get from the
pope his pallium, the white woollen stole with four crosses
which was the badge of his office and dignity, and is still
the special blazon in the armorial bearings of Canterbury.
The usage was an acknowledged one at this time. Lanfranc
himself had gone to Rome for the purpose. But the chair
of S. Peter was now claimed by two rivals, Urban and
Clement Anselm had foreseen a difficulty in the matter.
282 Lives of the Saints. tA P ra 3 i.
France and Normandy had acknowledged Urban; England
had acknowledged neither. Anselm, before his final ac-
ceptance, had given fair warning that to him Urban was the
true pope; the king had evaded the subject Anselm now
asked leave to go to Rome for his pallium. " From which
pope?" asked the king. Anselm had already given the
answer to the question, and he could but repeat it, " From
pope Urban." "Urban," said the king, "I have not
acknowledged. By my customs, by the customs of my
father, no man may acknowledge a pope in England with-
out my leave. To challenge my power in this, is as much
as to deprive me of my crown." The question thus raised
could not be left unsettled. Anselm demanded that it
should be answered by the great council of England. The
demand could not be refused, and an assembly was sum-
moned to consider the whole matter, and to give the king
advice upon it. Accordingly a great meeting of the chief
men in Church and State was held at the castle of Rock-
ingham.
The great council we might almost call it a Parliament
met on Mid-Lent Sunday, March nth, 1095, probably
in the church of the castle. There were the bishops,
abbots, and nobles; and besides a numerous throng,
watching and listening, of "monks, clerics, and laymen."
The king did not appear ; he had his private council
sitting apart, from which messages passed to and fro
between him and the archbishop in the larger public as-
sembly.
But with Anselm, the only question that there could be,
who was the pope, was, as he had from the first declared,
no question at all ; he, with Normandy, and all Gaul, had
recognized Urban as the true pope. It was part of William's
policy of mingled bullying and trickery, the trust placed in
evasion and delay by a man who doubted of all men's
April 21.] 6 1 . Anselm. 283
straightforwardness and disinterestedness, and hoped that
with time their selfishness would be his sure ally, that he
shut his eyes to what was plain from the first, that the pope
whom Anselm had acknowledged he would adhere to.
The bishops were in heart, as well as by the forms of
the law, the king's men. Some of them had bought their
bishoprics, most of them were afraid of William, and were
always expecting to have to appease his wrath by heavy
gifts of money. They saw, too, that a quarrel of this kind
was most dangerous to the already precarious peace of their
churches ; and they refused to be drawn into it With
compliments on Anselm's wisdom, which ought, they said,
to be their guide, they declined to give any other advice
than that he should submit himself without conditions to
the king's will. They were willing, however, to report his
words to the king, and the proceedings were adjourned to
the morrow. On the Monday, accordingly, they met again,
and Anselm repeated his question, to which they gave the
same answer. They would advise him only on condition
of his submitting himself, without qualification or reserve,
to the king's will. It was the answer of cpwards, convicted
by their own conscience, and knowing that all who heard
them knew what was in their conscience. "Having said
these words, they were silent," says Eadmer, "and hung
down their heads as if to receive what was coming on
them." Then Anselm, his eyes kindling, made his appeal.
"Since you," he said, "the shepherds of the Christian
people, and you who are called chiefs of the nation, refuse
your counsel to me, your chief, except according to the will
of one man, I will go the chief shepherd and Prince of all ;
I will hasten to the Angel of great counsel, and receive
from Him the counsel which I will follow in this my cause,
yea, His cause and that of His Church. Know ye, there-
fore, all of you, that in the things that are God's, I will
* *
284 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 2I .
render obedience to the Vicar of S. Peter ; and in those
which belong of right to the earthly dignity of my lord the
king, I will render him both faithful counsel and service, k>
the best of my understanding and power." The chief men
of the assembly were not prepared for this bold and direct
announcement Their irritation broke out in angry and
confused clamour, " so that it may be thought that they
were declaring him guilty of death " and they peremptorily
and angrily refused to report Anselm's words to the king,
to whose chamber they retired. Anselm, finding no one
whom he could trust to inform William of what had passed,
went to him, and repeated his words in his presence.
William was, of course, very angry. He intended that
Anselm should be silenced, as well as forced to submission;
and he looked to his bishops especially to silence him. It
was not easy for them "to find something to say which
should at once soothe the king's wrath, and not openly
contradict the alleged words of God." Eadmer describes
their perplexity, as, broken up into knots of two or three,
they discussed the matter ; while Anselm, who had re-
turned to the church, sat by himself to wait the result, and
at last, wearied by the delay, "leaning his head against the
wall, fell into a calm sleep."
At length, late in the day, the bishops with some of the
lay nobles came to him from the king. Their language
was a mixture of coaxing and menace. " The king," they
said, " requires peremptorily an immediate settlement, once
for all, of the question which had been opened at Gilling-
ham, and adjourned at Anselm's request to the present
time. The matter was perfectly plain, and needed no
argument The whole realm cried out against him for
impairing the honour of their lord's imperial crown ; for to
take away the customs of the royal dignity was as good as
taking away the king's crown ; one could not be duly held
*
April 2i.] , Anselm. 285
without the other." Then they appealed to his pride and
self-interest. ' ' This Urban could be of no use to him ;
why not shake off the yoke of subjection to him, and be
free, as becomes an archbishop of Canterbury, to fulfil the
commands of our lord the king?" Anselm listened patiently,
and replied, " Whoever would prove that, because I will
not renounce the obedience of the venerable bishop of the
holy Roman Church, I am violating my faith and my oath
to my earthly king, let him present himself, and he shall
find me prepared to answer him, as I ought, and where I
ought." When the bishop of Durham and his companions
came to see the meaning of Anselm's words, "As I ought,
and where I ought," they recognized in it a plea to which
they had no answer ; for it meant that no man could pass
judgment on an archbishop of Canterbury, except the
highest judge and authority in Christendom, the pope
himself; and the claim came home too powerfully to the
minds of men, both as Christians and as Englishmen, for
the king's Norman bishops to think of questioning it The
sympathy of the crowd had been with Ansel in ; but fear of
the king had kept down the expression of it to faint
murmurs. But now a soldier stepped out of the throng,
and kneeling before the archbishop, said, "Lord and
father, thy children, through me, beseech thee not to let thy
heart be troubled by what thou hast heard ; but remember
how holy Job on the dunghill vanquished the devil, and
avenged Adam, whom the devil had vanquished in Para-
dise." The quaint attempt at encouragement cheered
Anseim. He perceived that the feeling of the people was
with him. "So we were glad, and were more at ease in
our minds, being confident, according to the saying, that
the voice of the people is the i voice of God."
But in the court there was great vexation. "What shall
I do ? " says our reporter, Eadmer, literally our reporter, for
*
286 Lives of the Saints. [A P ni 2l .
he was present during the whole session. "Were I to
attempt to describe the threats, reproaches, insults, and
foul language with which the archbishop was assailed ; I
should be judged an exaggerator." On the morrow, Tues-
day morning, Anselm and his companions were in their
accustomed seats, waiting the king's orders. For a long
time none came, As a matter of argument there was
nothing to be said; Anselm had the words of God, the
authority of the apostle on his side. But his staff and ring
could be taken from him by force, and he be expelled the
kingdom. The bishop of Durham suggested the last ex-
pedient, as one in which the bishops could agree in. Such a
termination to the quarrel would be at least the king's act,
not their own, as it would be if they passed judgment on
him or on his plea. An impracticable and dangerous
leader would be got rid of by lay violence, and they would
not be compromised. But if the bishops acquiesced, the
laymen of the council were dissatisfied. They were begin-
ning to think that things were going too far. The barons
refused to agree with the advice of the bishop. " His
words did not please them/* "What does please you
then," said the king, "if they do not ? While I live, equal
in my realm I will not endure. Go, go, take counsel
together, for by God ; s countenance, if you do not condemn
him, 1 will condem you/' One of the shrewdest of them,
Robert, count of Mellent, who was hereafter to be one of
Anselm's stoutest enemies, answered, apparently with a
sense of amusement at the baffled eagerness of the bishops,
and perhaps with something of a sportman's admiration for
the gallantry of the single-handed defence, "About our
counsels, I don't know quite what to say. For when we
have been arranging them all day long, and have settled,
by talking them over among ourselves, how they are to
hold together, he goes to sleep, and thinks no harm ; and
*~
*
April".] S. Anselm. 287
the moment they are opened before him, with one breath
of his lips he breaks them as if they were cobwebs." The
king turned again to the bishops : "What could they do? 7 '
It was out of the question, they said, to judge him \ but
they agreed in the king's strange suggestion, that though
they could not judge him, they could withdraw their
obedience from him, and deny him their brotherly friend-
ship. This, then, was agreed upon ; and, accompanied by
some of the English abbots, they finally announced to the
archbishop that they withdrew their obedience from him,
as the king also withdrew from him his protection and
confidence, and would never more hold him for archbishop
and ghostly father. Anselm was to become a kind of out-
law, abandoned by all his brethren, deprived of the king's
protection, and out of the king's peace, put to shame
before the whole realm. His answer was calm and
temperate. There must be two to make a quarrel, and he
on his part would not quarrel either with them, or with the
king; and, come what might, he should still retain the
authority and the name of archbishop of Canterbury.
William heard his answer with displeasure ; he had
probably expected submission or resignation. There was
still one more thing to do. The ecclesiastical members of
the council had formally deserted Anselm, but the laymen
had not. The king turned to them; "No man shall be
mine," he said, " who chooses to be his," appealing to the
feudal feeling about homage ; and he called on his barons
to follow the example of the bishops. But the tide had
now completely turned. They absolutely refused to lend
themselves to a precedent so dangerous to all their liberties.
The answer altered the whole face of matters. It turned
what had seemed the winning side into the beaten and
disappointed one. It upset all the king's plans, and the
three days' laborious and shifty attempts of the bishop of
288 Lives of the Saints. [April ax.
Durham and his fellows. The laymen, high and low,
refused to go with them, and the defeat was confessed.
The bishops had made their sacrifice of honour and
conscience for nothing ; nothing was gained by the public
display of then* subserviency, which it was not even thought
worth while to follow up. On all sides they met mocking
eyes and scowling looks.
At Whitsuntide, Anselm, who had been keeping the
festival at his manor of Mortlake, was summoned to the
neighbourhood of Windsor, where the king was, and came
to Hayes, another of his manors. He was visited the next
day by nearly all the bishops, and their errand was once
more to prevail on him to make up the quarrel by a pay-
ment of money. Anselm was inflexible. The king saw
that his game had been a false one, and threw it up at last
frankly. William was preparing for a busy and critical
summer, and he could not afford to offend his chief men.
Without more ado he followed their advice, and freely
restored Anselm to his favour. Bygones were to be by-
gones, and he granted that the archbishop should freely
exercise his office as the spiritual father of the realm.
A year of comparative respite followed. The year 1096
was a busy year for the king. It had begun with the signal
vengeance taken by him at Salisbury against the conspira-
tors of the year before, and it was the year of the first
crusade. Robert of Normandy, unable to govern, but
ready for adventure and fresh conquest, was carried away
by the enthusiasm of the time; he had no money, and
William saw at last his opportunity arrive. He bought
Normandy of his brother for three years. The money was,
as usual, to be drawn from England. The lands were
racked, the churches spoiled of their treasures their
chalices, and reliquaries, and volumes of the Gospels bound
in gold and silver. Anselm only suffered as the rest He
April aio vS. Anselm. 289
had of course to furnish his contribution, and he judged it
but reasonable and fitting that he should do so.
But other difficulties were soon to return on hira. Wales
was as troublesome to William as Ireland was to Elizabeth.
He marched through the country, but he failed to subdue
it ; and lost many men and horses in the attempt. In
1097 he tried to strike a more serious blow; but little
came of it. He came back in ill-humour. Anselm again
felt it. He received a letter from the king, complaining of
the contingent soldiers whom the archbishop had sent to
the army. The king had him now at his mercy, not on a
question of religion, but of feudal service. At the Whitsun
meeting, while people were asking what was to come of
this charge, whether Anselm would have to pay a large
fine, or to submit to the king, and never lift up his head
more, he sent a request to the king for permission to go to
Rome. The request was a surprise. William refused.
But Anselm started. A message followed Anselm, to the
effect that, if he went himself, he was to carry nothing away
with him belonging to the king. "Does he mean my
horses, and dress, and furniture, which he may perhaps call
his own ?" The message was a burst of that mere desire
to insult and annoy, which William was ashamed of when
he had indulged it; and he sent word that Anselm was
within ten days to be at the sea, and there the king's
officer would meet him, to settle what he might take with
him. The parting then had come, perhaps the leave-taking.
Anselm's affectionate nature was moved, and he could not
restrain a burst of kindly feeling. Nor was William himself
unmoved by it With cheerful and bright countenance he
returned to the king : " My lord," he said, " I go. If it
could have been with your good-will, it would have better
become you, and been more agreeable to all good people
And now, not knowing when I shall see you again, I
VOL. IV. IQ
290 Lives of the Saints.
commend you to God; and as a spiritual father to his
beloved son, as the archbishop of Canterbury to the king of
England, I would fain before I go, if you refuse it not, give
God's blessing and my own." " I refuse not thy blessing,"
the king answered He bowed his head, and Anselm
lifted his right hand, and made the sign of the cross on
him. And so they parted : on Thursday, Oct i5th, 1097.
Anselm returned at once to Canterbury, where, after taking
leave of the monks, he took at the altar the pilgrim's staff
and scrip, and set forth to Dover. At Dover he was
detained a fortnight by the weather, and he found there
the knag's officer, one of the clerks of the royal chapel,
William Warelwast^ who lived with him during his deten-
tion. When at last the wind became fair, and Anselm was
embarking, William Warelwast, to the surprise and disgust
of the bystanders, came forward, and required all the
baggage to be searched It was meant as a parting in-
dignity; and it came the worse from an ecclesiastic who
had been living all the time at Anselm's table. But no
treasure was found ; and he and his company landed safely
at Witsand William immediately seized the property of
the see, and kept it till his death.
Anselm, in the month of November, 1097, began his
winter journey -to Italy, accompanied by two friends,
Baldwin of Tournai, and Eadmer, who has preserved the
curious record of the details of a journey in those days.
Their resting-places were generally monasteries. Anselm,
of course, was received with honour; but there was, besides,
a charm about his personal appearance and manner, which
Eadmer delights to dwell upon. Nothing could exceed the
honour shewn to Anselm at Rome. " In assemblies of the
nobles, in stations, in processions, he was second only
to the pope himself," says Eadmer. The pope spoke of
him as " the Patriarch, the Apstolicus, or pope of a second
April ai.] Anselm. 291
world." Urban had many disputes on his hands, and he
would not, if he could help it, add another with so reckless
and dangerous a person as the Red King. A year and a half
passed, and nothing was done to obtain redress for Anselm,
and it became daily more plain that Urban had no intention
of going beyond words and threats. Rome was an un-
healthy residence for strangers, and Anselm accepted the
invitation of the abbot of Telese, on the Galore, near
Benevento, to take up his abode with him. The summer
heats were intolerable, and the abbot transferred his
northern guests to a mountain village called Schiavi. Here,
amid his wanderings and troubles, Anselm had a summer
of respite and refreshment The little village was perched
on a hill-top ; and there was no one living in it but the
labourers, and a monk who superintended them; the
summer sky was deep blue, the mountain air was sweet and
fresh j and here were wild pinks, and saxifrage, recalling the
dear crags of Aosta, and many a happy ramble in childhood.
After his vexed and weary life, the old man's heart leaped
up at the charms of nature and repose, and happy mountain
memories. " Here shall be my rest for ever," he cried out,
in the words of the Psalmist ; " here will I dwell, for I have
a delight therein. " He went back at once to his old habits
of life and trains of thought.
In the midst of the strife of his last year in England, he
had thought out, and had begun to compose a work which
was, like other works of his, to open new views of theology,
and permanently to affect the thoughts of men. It was his
famous dialogue, Cur Deus Homo^ in which, seeking
rational ground for the Incarnation, he lays down a pro-
found and original theory of the Atonement, which, whether
accepted or impugned, has moulded the character of
Christian doctrine about it ever since.
But he could not long enjoy retirement. He had to
* .
29 2 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 2 i.
meet the pope in the camp of the Norman Duke of Apulia,
before Capua; and there Eadmer notices again that ever
present charm of face and manner, which attracted to him
the reverence and interest of the heathen " Saracens " of
Duke Roger's army. He earnestly entreated the pope to
relieve him of the archbishopric, but such a step did not
suit the papal policy any more than a decided breach with
the king. At last, despairing of redress, " we understood/'
says Eadmer, "that our look for counsel and help was vain,
so we resolved to ask leave to return to Lyons." But the
pope would not let Anselm go. A council was to be held
at Easter at the Lateran, and he must wait for it The
council met in April, 1099, and various decrees and canons
were passed. But when they were to be read in S. Peter's,
the crowd being very great, Reinger, bishop of Lucca, a
man of tall stature, and loud and ringing voice, was ap-
pointed to read them. He began ; but when he had got a
little way, his countenance kindled, and under the influence
of strong emotion he stopped. " What are we doing here ?"
he said, looking round the assembly. "We are loading
men with laws, and we dare not resist the cruelty of tyrants.
Hither are brought the complaints of the oppressed ; from
hence, counsel and help are asked for. And with what
result all the world knows and sees. One is sitting among
us from the ends of the earth, in modest silence, still and
meek. But his silence is a loud cry. This one man has
come here in his cruel wrongs to ask for the judgment and
equity of the apostolic see. And this is the second year,
and what help has he found? If you do not all know
whom I mean, it is Anselm, archbishop of England," and
with this he thrice struck his staff violently on the floor,
and a burst of breath from his closed teeth showed his
indignation.
"Brother Reinger," exclaimed the Pope, "enough,
I .j S. Anselm. 293
enough. Good order shall be taken about this." Reinger,
drawing his breath, rejoined, "There is good need. For
otherwise the thing will not pass with Him who judges
justly/ 7 But this burst of feeling led to nothing, and meant
nothing. And, indeed, there was really nothing that could
be done. Urban was right, a sentence of excommunication
launched against William would have been productive of
untold evil, and could do no good. "On the following
day," says Eadmer, "we got leave, and we left Rome,
having obtained nought of judgment or advice through the
Roman bishop, except what I have said."
In the following July, 1099, Urban died. "May God's
hatred light on him who cares for it," was William's remark.
"And what sort of person is his successor?" "A man in
some respects like Anselm," was the answer. " By God's
face, then," said William, "let him keep to himself, for his
popeship shall not this time get over me." But his hour
was at hand. On the 2nd August, noo, he perished by an
uncertain hand in the New Forest Anselm received the
news at Chaise Dieu, near Brioude, and messenger after
messenger arrived from England, from Canterbury, from
King Henry, from the great men of the realm, urging his
instant return. The land was in suspense till the arch-
bishop went back to sanction what was done, and business
was at a standstill in the uncertainty created by his absence.
On the 23rd September Anselm landed at Dover, and
shortly after he was with the king at Salisbury. Henry at
once demanded from the archbishop the renewal of homage,
and required that he should receive the archbishopric afresh
by a new act of investiture. " Lofty as the pretensions of
the crown had been," says Sir F. Palgrave, "this demand
was entirely unprecedented, at least so far as we can collect
from any existing historical evidence. It imported that, on
the death of the Sovereign, the archbishop's commission
294 Lives af tke Saints.
expired that his office was subordinate and derivative, and
the dignity thereof reverted to the crown it was clear that
Henry pledged himself in his own heart and mind not to
abate a jot of his supremacy over the clergy ; he would
exercise his authority in church affairs somewhat more
decently than his father, and a great deal more than his
brother; but that was all" Anselm, when the demand
was made, at once stated his position. He had no choice.
The council at Rome, at which he had assisted, had passed
its decrees, and by those decrees he was bound. The
question of investiture was this. The king and other lay-
men claimed to invest bishops and abbots with their juris-
diction, by giving them the ring and staff. This the Church
had refused to permit, and it insisted on there being some
check imposed on the nomination of prelates, lest Church
offices should become mere rewards for state services. It
was agreed that the matter should be referred to the pope.
The answer from Rome was long in coming, but it came at
last It expressed readiness to grant favours and indul-
gences to Henry, but not what he demanded. Pope Paschal
plainly set forth the shame and mischief of allowing great
church offices to be disposed of by the kings and princes of
the time, without an effort to assert their sacredness, and to
force the world to acknowledge their spiritual character.
A breach now seemed inevitable, but Henry was too wary
to allow it to take place at once and irremediably. Fresh
embassies were sent, one after another, and finally Anselm
himself went to Rome about the matter, and Henry gave
evidence of the justice of Anselm's quarrel by two appoint-
ments he made. He gave the bishopric of Salisbury to his
chanceUor Roger, originally a poor priest of Caen, who had
pleased Henry by the speed with which he could get
through Mass ; and the bishopric of Hereford he gave to
another Roger, the clerk of his larder. It is hardly won-
April aij ,51 Anselm. 295
derful, with such appointments, made as a matter of course,
of men broken into the ways of feudal courts, ecclesiastics in
nothing but their qualifications as scribes and accountants,
that bishoprics were indifferently filled, and that those who
wished to restore the Church to holiness, thought nothing
too much to do and to suffer, in order to break down this
prescriptive system.
At Rome, Anselm and Warelwast, the king's advocate,
appeared before the pope. " Know all men present," said
Warelwast, after a long advocacy of the king's rights, " that
not to save his kingdom will King Henry lose the investi-
tures of the churches." "Nor, before God, to save his
head, will Pope Paschal let him have them," was the imme-
diate retort. There was nothing more to do at Rome, and
Anselm prepared to return to England, to excommunicate
the king if he persisted in his claim. But Henry would
not suffer him to enter England, and he remained a year
and-a-half at Lyons, whilst the king opened fresh and
equally ineffectual negotiations with Rome. At last, in
the spring of 1105, he set forward to excommunicate
Henry. The report spread, and Henry was alarmed. He
was too prudent to allow things to come to extremities.
Henry met him at the castle of 1'Aigle sur Rille in Nor-
mandy, and a reconciliation was effected. Anselm was put
in possession of the revenues of his see, but Henry still in-
sisted on the old conditions ere he would allow the arch-
bishop to return to Canterbury. But the final arrangement
of the dispute took place at London, when in an assembly
of bishops, abbots, and nobles, in August, 1107, the king
granted and decreed that from that time forth no one
should be invested in England with bishopric or abbey by
staff and ring, either by the king or by any lay hand; and
Anselm on the other part allowed that no one elected to a
prelacy should be refused consecration on account of royal
* *
Jg
296 Lives of the Saints. A P HI ,
nomination. This having been settled, bishops were
appointed by the king, with the counsel of Anselm, to
many of the churches in England, which had long been
widowed of their pastors. Anselm had won a great
victory.
To have made so marked a change publicly in the relations
of bishops to great kings, and to have induced one of the
sons of the Conqueror, and that one Henry, the shrewdest,
ablest, hardest of them all, to forego part of the customs
which he valued at the worth of half his kingdom, was an
achievement of which, whatever came of it, no one could
mistake the magnitude. It was accomplished, too, with a
remarkable absence of those violent measures which were
so freely used in other scenes of this same contest on the
continent of Europe. That which determined it as much
as anything was Anselm's personal character; the boundless
reverence, and, still more, the intense love and sympathy
called out on all sides, by the union in it of the deepest
human tenderness with calm self-command, with unpre-
tending courage, and with that unconscious and child-like
meekness, with which he bore these great and singular gifts
of intellect, in which by this time he was known to be with-
out a living equal in Christendom. Henry, with all his
heavy faults, had eyes for this. He knew that in Anselm
he had at Canterbury the greatest Christian bishop of his
time. There is little more to be said of Anselm. Henry
was loyal to his agreement; and in fining up vacancies, he
followed not his own fancy, but took the advice of religious
men. Anselm died at Canterbury, peacefully amongst his
monks, on the 2ist April, being Wednesday in Holy Week,
in the year 1109, the sixteenth of his pontificate and the
seventy-sixth of his life.
He was first buried next to his friend Lanfranc in the
body of the minster of Canterbury, before the great rood
April ai.J
SI Anselm.
297
which rose up in the midst of it before the choir. His
remains were afterwards translated to the chapel beneath
the south-east tower which now bears his name. There
they now rest
Q-aorge. See p. 301,
*-
-*
298 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii
April SS.
SS. APELLBS, Lucius, AND CLEMENT, J3J3. in Asia Minor, ist cent.
S. SOTER, Pope of Rome, A.D. 171.
SS. PARMENAS AND COMP., MM. in Persia, A.D. 251.
S. CAIUS, Pope, M. at Rome, A.D. 296.
SS. AZADES, ACEPSIMAS, AND COMP., MM. ill Persia, A.D. 350.
S. LEO, B. of Sens, in Frame, circ. A.D. 540-
S. THEODORE THE SICEOTB, B. of Anastasiopolis, A.D. 613.
S. OPPORTUNA, K Aess. at Alnteneches, in Normandy, circ. A.D. 769.
S. SEGNORIN, Aoss. at S. J tan-de-Vieyra, Portugal, A.D. 982.
SS. AZADES, ACEPSIMAS, AND COMP., MM.
(A.D. 350.)
[Usuardus, Ado, Roman Martyrology. Authority: Sozomen, Hist.
Eccl. lib. ii. cc. 9, 10, n, 12, 13, 14.]
IEN Simeon, bishop of Ctesiphon, whose
martyrdom has been already related (March
2ist), was being conducted to prison, Ustha-
zanes, an aged eunuch, the foster-father of king
Sapor, who was sitting at the gates of the palace, arose to
do him reverence. Simeon reproachfully turned away his
countenance, and passed by, because the eunuch had
formerly been a Christian, but. had recently submitted to
the state religion, and worshipped the sun. This conduct
so affected the eunuch, that he wept aloud, and clothing
himself in black, sat down in front of the palace.
When Sapor heard of what had occurred, he was the
more enraged against the Christians. Still he pitied the
old man, and strove to bring him over to his sentiments,
But finding that Usthazanes was resolved to make atone-
ment for his past cowardice, he commanded that the
eunuch's head should be struck off. Next day suffered
Simeon, the bishop, and Abdechalaas, and Ananias, two
priests. Pusicius, the superintendent of the king's artisans,
S, SEGNORIN. After Cabier.
April 2*.
April 22.] ,5*5. Azades & Companions. 299
was present at the execution ; and perceiving that Ananias
trembled as the preparations for his death were being
made, he said to him: "Oh, old man, close your eyes,
and be of good courage, soon will you behold the light of
Christ." He was at once arrested, and put to a most
extraordinary death. The executioners pierced the muscles
of his neck in such a manner as to extract his tongue. At the
same time his daughter, a consecrated virgin, was martyred.
Of the Christians unsparingly sacrificed, was Azadas, an
eunuch, who was especially beloved by the king. On
hearing of his death, Sapor was overwhelmed with grief;
and put a stop to the indiscriminate slaughter of the
Christians j and directed that only the clergy should be
slain. About the same time suffered Tarbula, a holy
virgin, the sister of Simeon the bishop. She was sawn
asunder. Acepsimas, a bishop, and several of his priests,
as well as many other bishops, were killed in this perse-
cution. Sozomen says that upward of sixteen thousand
suffered in it.
300 Lives of the Saints. EApra 93 .
April 23.
SS. FELIX, .P., FORTUNATUS AND ACHILLES, DD., MM. at Valenee>
in France, tire. A.D. 212.
S. GEORGE, M. at Lydda, in Palestine, A.D. 303.
S. PUSINA, V. at Corbie, $th cent,
S. IBAR, B. ofBegery, in Ireland, A.D. 500.
S. ADALBERT, ArM. of Prog, M. in Bohemia, A.D. 997.
S. GERARD, B. of Tout* A.D. 994-
S. JOHN OF HOLAR, B. in Iceland, A.D. uaz.
SS. FELIX, FORTUNATUS, AND ACHILLES, MM.
(A.D. 212.)
[Martyrology of S. Jerome, so called ; Gallican and Roman Martyr-
ologies, Ado, Notker, Ac. The notorious forger of the Chronicle of
Flavius Dexter, knowing from the Martyrologies that these saints suffered
at Valentia, coolly inserted in his chronicle, " In Spain, in Valentia, in the
year 255, suffered SS. Felix, Fortunatus, and Achilles, sent by S. Irenseus
to preach against the Gnostics." The Spanish and Portugese Martyr-
ologists, Salasar, Cams, Bivarius, &c., have urged on this statement, and
converted these martyrs into national saints, and their relics are exhibited
at Valencia, according to Davila, B. of Jaen. Authority : The Acts by
an eye-witness, which, if not genuine in their present condition, are per-
haps trustworthy in their general outlines.]
jJAINT FELIX was a priest, sent 'with two
deacons, Fortunatus and Achilles, into Gaul
by S. Irenaeus of Lyons. They were overheard
singing, "All the world shall worship thee,
sung of thee, and praise thy power/' and were denounced
to the governor Cornelius, who consigned them to prison.
But escaping from prison by night, they entered the temple
of Jupiter, and broke a very beautiful amber statue of the
God that adorned it For this they were re-taken, and
their heads struck oft
S. George. 301
. S. GEORGE, M.
(A.D. 285.)
[Every Martyrology, Greek and Latin. Few saints have received such
universal recognition as S. George. His name is in the Sacramentary of
S. Gregory. The Acts, Latin and Greek, are apocryphal. Pope S.
Gelasius, in the council of Rome, A.D. 494, numbered these Acts among
the Apocrypha, together with those of SS. Cyriac and Julitta. The Latin
Acts close with the remarkably barefaced lie, '' I Pasecras, servant of
my lord George, who was present through the seven years of his passion
.... have written in order all that was done to my lord George. God,
the Lord of heaven and earth, who will judge the quick and the dead,
knows that I have neither added to nor subtracted anything from his
passion; but have written what he suffered." This is quoted by S.
Andrew of Crete, (d. 767), and it must therefore have existed in his time,
and been recognized in spite of the protest of S. Gelasius. The Bolland-
ists suppose that the Acts we now have are not those accounted as the
work of heretics by S. Gelasius, but are the fabrication of some Sicilian
monks, in the loth century ; and they base their opinions on the fact that
there is no heresy in them. But S. Gelasius may well have seen then,
what is abundantly evident to comparative mythologists now, that these
Acts are simply an adaptation of a heathen myth of a solar god to a
Christian saint. All that can be relied on is mentioned in the following
article.]
EUSEBIUS, the father of ecclesiastical histoiy, says,
(Hist Eccl. viii. 5), " Immediately on the promulgation of
title edict (of Diocletian), a certain man of no mean origin,
but highly esteemed for his temporal dignities, as soon as
the decree was published against the Churches in Nico-
media, stimulated by a divine zeal, and excited by an
ardent faith, took it as it was openly placed and posted up
for public inspection, and tore it to shreds as a most
profane and wicked act. This, too, was done when the
two Caesars were in the city, the first of whom was the
eldest and chief of all, and the other held the fourth grade
of the imperial dignity after him. But this man, as the
first that was distinguished there in this manner, after
enduring what was likely to follow an act so daring, pre-
HM-
302 JLwes of the Saints. IA^U 23 .
served his mind calm and serene until the moment when
his spirit fled," 1
This martyr, whose name Eusebius does not give, has
been generally supposed to be S. George, and if so, this
is nearly all we know authentic concerning him. But
popular as a saint he unquestionably was, from a very early
age. The earliest Acts are in Greek, and belong to the
6th century; they are fabulous. Besides these, are some
Latin Acts, pretending to be the composition of Pasikras,
the servant of the martyr. But these are also apocryphal.
The substance of the Greek Acts is to this effect :
George was born of Christian parents in Cappadocia. His
father suffered a martyr's death, and the mother with her
child took refuge in Palestine. He early entered the
army, and behaved with great courage and endurance. At
the age of twenty he was bereaved of his mother, and by
her death came in for a large fortune. He then went to
the court of Diocletian, where he hoped to find advance-
ment. On the breaking out of the persecution, he distri-
buted his money among the poor, and declared himself,
before the emperor, to be a Christian. Having been
ordered to sacrifice, he refused, and was condemned to
death. Here follows a numerous succession of tortures,
from which he miraculously recovers, day after day, a suc-
cession which accompanies with wearisome monotony nearly
all the Greek apocryphal acts of martyrdom. The first day
he was thrust with spears to prison; one of the spears when it
touched him snapped like straw. He was then fastened by
feet and hands to posts, and a heavy stone was laid upon
i As the Bollandists point out, Usuardus inserted this account in his Martyrology,
under the name of John of Nicomedia, on Sept. ?th, and Baronius adopted it without
question from Usuardus into the Modern Roman Martyrology. Papebroeck
shows that it is most probable that this martyr, unnamed by Eusebius, was the
great S. George, A.D 303 ; but on the other hand, as will be seen presently, this
date will not agree with that in the Chronicon Paschale, 285.
M-
April 23.] ,5*. George. 303
his breast The second day he was bound to a wheel set
with blades and swords. Diocletian believes him to be
dead; but an angel appearing, S. George saluted him in
military fashion, whereby the persecutor ascertained that
the saint was still living. On removing him from the wheel,
it was discovered that all his wounds were healed. S.
George was then cast into a pit of quick-lime, which, how-
ever, did not cause his death. On the next day but one,
the emperor sent to have his limbs broken, and he was
discovered on his knees perfectly whole.
He was next made to run in red-hot iron shoes. The
following night and day he spent in prayer, and on the sixth
day he appeared before Diocletian walking and unhurt
He was then scourged with thongs of hide till his flesh
came off his back, but he was well on the next day. On
the seventh day he drank two cups, whereof the one was
prepared to make him mad, the other to poison him, with-
out his experiencing any ill effects. He then performed
some miracles, raised a dead man to life, and restored to
life an ox which had been killed ; miracles which resulted
in numerous conversions. That night S. George dreamed
that the Saviour laid a golden crown on his head, and bade
him prepare for Paradise. S. George at once called to him
the servant who pretends to write these memoirs, and com-
manded him, after his death, to take his body and will to
Palestine. On the eighth day, the saint, by the sign of the
cross, forced the devil inhabiting the statue of Apollo to
declare that he was a fallen angel ; then all the statues of
the gods fell before him. This miracle converted the
empress Alexandra; and Diocletian was so exasperated
against the truth, that he condemned her to instant death.
She was then executed, with Apollo, Isaac, and Croates,
who were converted with her. 1
1 The empress is commemorated in the Greek Church on April arst ! Baronius
saw the absurdity of this, and did not insert her name in the Roman Martyr-
ology, but only those of her servants, Apollo, Isaac, and Creates.
304
Lives of the Saints. CApm ^
Two days after S. George received his crown.
The Latin Acts may be summed up as follows :
The devil urges Dacian, emperor of the Persians, to
persecute the Church. At this time lived George of Cappa-
docia, a native of Melitena. Melitena is also the scene of
his martyrdom. Here he lived with a holy widow. He
was subjected to numerous tortures, such as the rack, iron
pincers, fire, a sword-spiked wheel, shoes nailed to his feet ;
he was put into an iron box, set within with sharp nails, and
flung down a precipice; he was beaten with sledge ham-
mers, a pillar was laid on him, a heavy stone dashed on to
his head ; he was stretched on a red-hot iron bed, melted
lead was poured over him ; he was cast into a well, trans-
fixed with forty long nails, shut into a brazen bull over a
fire, and cast again into a well with a stone round his neck.
Each time he returned from a torment, he was restored to
full vigour. His tortures lasted seven years 1 His constancy
and miracles were the means of converting 40,900 men,
and the empress Alexandra, Dacian then ordered the execu-
tion of S. George and the empress ; and as they died, a
whirlwind of fire consumed and carried off the persecutor. 1
In Europe, the story of S. George became popularised
under a totally different form, one just as far removed from
the truth as the Greek version. Jacques de Voragine tells
the story thus :
George, a tribune, was born in Cappadocia, and came to
Libya, to the town called Silene, near which was a pond
infested by a monster, which had many times driven back
an armed host that had come to destroy him. He even
approached the walls of the city, and with his exhalations
poisoned all who were near. To avoid such visits, he was
i Will it be believed that the Pere Giry, and the Abbe Guerin, in their " Little
Bollandists" give this string of impossibilities as true history, without a word
of caution, only suppressing the most revolting absurdities. Yet pope Gclasius
rejects the Acts of S. George as the composition of heretics.
*-
A P rll5 *-J * George. 305
furnished each day with two sheep, to satisfy his voracity.
When the sheep at the disposal of the citizens were ex-
hausted, their sons and daughters were cast to the dragon.
The lot fell one day on the princess. The king covered his
child with royal robes and sent her forth to meet the dragon.
S. George was riding by, and seeing the maiden in tears,
and the monster rising from the marsh to devour her, ad-
vanced, spear in hand, to meet the monster, commending
himself to God. He transfixed the dragon, and then bade
the princess pass the girdle round it, and fear nothing.
When this was done, the monster followed like a docile
hound. When they had brought it into the town, the
people fled before it; but George recalled them, bidding
them put aside all fear. Then the king and all his people,
twenty thousand men, without counting women and chil-
dren, were baptized, and George smote off the head of the
monster. Other versions of the story are to the effect that
the princess was shut up in a castle, and that all within were
perishing for want of water, which could only be obtained
from a fountain at the base of a hill, and this was guarded
by the dragon, from which S. George delivered them.
This story was accepted by the uncritical clerks of the
Middle Ages, and found its way into the Office-books of
the Church, the Missals and Breviaries, whence it was cut
out by Pope Clement VII., and S. George was simply
acknowledged as a martyr, reigning with Christ 1
But though the legend itself may be fable, S. George him-
self is a fact
It is one of those singular phenomena which are familiar
to all readers of history, that the successful refutation of an
error as a false statement, by no means sets the question at
rest for the future. The history of S. George the Martyr
1 In my ** Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," I have followed out both the
Eastern and Western forms of the legend of S. George to their original sources.
VOL. IV. 20
306 Lives of the Saints. cA P ru a3 .
is a case in point Calvin was the first to declare his
conviction that S. George was a myth, a mere creation of
some one's imagination. The learned Peter Heylyn de-
molished his argument against the historical reality of the
existence of the champion of chivalry. Again, the historian
Gibbon flippantly identified him with the infamous George
of Cappadocia, the Arian bishop of Alexandria, and as this
identification is very popularly believed to be incontestable,
it is necessary here to tell the story of this Arian George,
and to show how utterly groundless is the attempt to
convert a heretic into the patron saint of England.
This George, according to a contemporary authority,
Ammianus Marcellinus, was born in a fuller's mill at
Epiphania, in Cilicia ; his first occupation was that of pur-
veyor of bacon to the army, at Constantinople, where,
according to the testimony of S. Athanasius, he was making
great profits, not in the most honest way ; being found out,
he fled to Cappadocia; here he commenced his intrigues.
He adopted the profession of Arianism, the better to in-
gratiate himself with the party then in power at court;
being found a useful, and at the same time an unscrupulous
man, he gained friends, who got his former malpractices
overlooked and pardoned. From the love, or the ostenta-
tion of learning, he collected a valuable library ; and the
choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cilicia
to the throne of S. Athanasius. The entrance of the new
archbishop was that of a barbarian conqueror, and each
moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice.
The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to
a tyrant, qualified by nature and education to exercise the
office of persecutor; but he oppressed with an impartial
hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. As
primate of Egypt, he assumed pomp and insolence in his
lofty station, but still betrayed the vices of his base
April 23.] S. George. 307
and servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were
impoverished by the unjust, and almost universal, monopoly
which he acquired of nitre, salt, paper, funerals, &c., and
the spiritual father of a great people condescended to prac-
tice the vile acts of an informer. The pagans excited his
devout avarice ; and the rich temples of Alexandria were
either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who ex-
claimed, in a loud and threatening tone, " How long will
these sepulchres be permitted to stand?" The messenger
who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of the apostate
Julian, announced the downfall of the archbishop. George,
with two of his obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus and
Dracontius, master of the mint, were ignominiously dragged
to the public prison. At the end of twenty-four days, the
prison was forced open by the rage of the heathen multi-
tude, and George, Diodorus, and Dracontius were torn to
pieces by them, and their bodies cast into the sea. Gibbon
says, " The meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated
the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear
and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversion of
those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of
the Catholic Church. The odious stranger, disguising
every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of
a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero, and the infamous
George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the re-
nowned S. George of England, the patron of arms, of
chivalry, and of the garter." 1
Such is the slander which we undertake to refute. The
date of the slaying of George the Arian prelate was 361.
The Chronicon Paschale, or Alexandrine Chronicle, 2 says :
"285th Olympiad. Consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta.
* Decline and Fall. Vol. ii^ c. 23.
Compiled by three hands. The first carried it down to A.D. 3^4; the second to
639 the years 601, 639, are however lost; the third to 1042,
* *
- *
Lives of the Saints. iApru a3 .
Julian, learning the death of the Emperor Constantius,
making manifest his own apostasy and impiety, and des-
patching an edict against Christianity throughout the whole
world, ordered all idols to be restored. Whereupon the
Gentile Greeks in the East, being excited, immediately in
Alexandria, which is in Egypt, having seized George, the
bishop of that city, murdered him, and profanely insulted
his corpse."
Fl. Mamertinus and Fl. Nevitta were consuls in 362,
while the 285th Olympiad was in 361. But if the murder
took place on the last day of 361, the difference of date is
easily accounted for. Now this same Chronicon Pashale
mentions the martyrdom of S. George in the 266th
Olympiad, in these words : " 266th Olympiad. Consuls,
Carinus for the second time, and Numerianus. In the
year 255 of the Ascension of our Lord into heaven, a per-
secution of the Christians took place, and many suffered
martyrdom, among whom also the Holy George was
martyred."
We find from the "Fasti Consulares," of Almeloveen,
that in 284, Carinus and Numerian were consuls before the
kalends of May. The 266th Olympiad corresponds with
A.D. 285, so 255 years after Christ's Ascension must be
added the thirty-four years of his era, which would make
A.D. 289. But it is evident that the author of this Chronicon
follows those Chronologists who place the birth of Christ
four years earlier, consequently A.D. 289 ought to be A.D.
285.1
But there is further proof. At Shaka, the ancient Saccsea,
in Palestine, there existed the ruins of a church with a dated
Greek inscription, copied by Burckhardt, to this effect
"A church of the holy victorious martyr George, and of
1 This date will not agree with that of the nameless Nicomedian martyr of
Eosebius, which is 303.
-*
*
April 2 3 .] S. George. 309
the holy ones with him, was built from the foundations
with offerings of bishop Tiberinus. But the care of George
and Sergius (erected) the sanctuary and the addition to the
temple in the year 363, great . . ." This date
ought to be 367. This date, however, is not that of the
founding and dedication of the church, but of the sanctuary
(hierateion) and the addition (prostheke) erected by George
and Sergius ; consequently the original building must have
been much more ancient
Another ruined church at Ezra in Syria, originally a
heathen temple, has also an inscription, dated in Greek, of
the year 346, in which Saint George is named, and called a
"Holy Martyr." 1 Consequently this inscription was put
up during the lifetime of George the Arian bishop of Alex-
andria, who lived fifteen years longer, to A.D. 362.
George Codinus in the i5th century wrote his book "On
the Antiquities of Constantinople." This book is a compila-
tion, and contains the chronicle of Hesychius Milesius, written
in 518. In this we are told that Constantine the Great de-
dicated a church to S. George the martyr, in Constantinople,
about 330, and therefore some forty- two years before the death
of the Arian George. The Greek Mensea confirms this, and
indeed No?. 3rd is observed in the Greek Church as the feast
of the dedication of this church by Constantine. It is
almost absurd to suppose that, considering the horror of
Arian teaching entertained by the Catholics, the opponent
of S. Athanasius, a man odious for his crimes, should have
become popular as a saint, and that S. Gregory the Great
(d. 506) should have inserted his festival in the sacra-
mentary, with collects for his day. But evidence enough
has been produced to ruin the view of Gibbon, eagerly
adopted by Dr. Stanley, which is a parody of history, and
an insult to religion.
1 Transactions Royal Soc. Lit., vol. vi., p. 30$ ; and vii., p. i, an art. onS. George
by Mr. Hogg.
310 Lives of the Saints.
In Art S. George appears armed as a knight, mounted on
a horse transfixing the dragon with his lance.
It is almost impossible to enumerate all the places which
boast of possessing relics of this saint
S. IBAR, B. OF BEGERY.
(A.D. 500.)
[Irish Martyrologies, amongst others that of Tallaght. Authority :
Mention in the lives of S. Patrick and S. Bridget.]
ACCORDING to some accounts, S. Ibar was bishop in
Ireland before the arrival of S. Patrick. That he was a
contemporary of the great apostle of Ireland cannot be
denied, and that is as much as can be granted consistently
with the truth of history. The accounts which occur in the
late tracts and lives abound in anachronisms and contra-
dictions, while the old Irish annals and the most correct
lives of S. Patrick are in direct opposition to them. Ac-
cording to some of these late stories, invented at a time
when some bishops claimed a pre-eminence and antiquity
for their sees to which they were not originally entitled,
Ibar of Beg-erin or Begery opposed S. Patrick, and refused
to acknowledge his jurisdiction, till he was admonished to
do so by an angel. When S. Patrick met with hostility in
Tipperary from the prince, Olild, he requested Ibar to offer
prayers to God for his conversion, and these prayers were
so efficacious that Olild, his family, and all his subjects, are
said to have been converted and baptized. That Ibar was
a bishop before 465 is hardly probable \ in all likelihood he
was consecrated by S. Patrick. His school at Beg-erin was
famous throughout the land, and a nursery of saints.
*-
*
Apm 2 3 .] Adalbert. 311
S. ADALBERT, B. OF PRAG, M.
(A.D. 997.)
[Roman and German Martyrologies. In a Cologne and Lubeck Mar-
tyrology, printed in 1490, Aug. 2$th was set down as the feast of his
translation. Authorities : A life by a contemporary, a Roman monk,
another life written later, but by a contemporary also, a German or
Bohemian monk. Also mention in the Ermland Annals, "Annales Var-
raienses ;" also the Bohemian Annals quoted by Hagek.]
ADALBERT OF PRAG was born about the year 956, of one
of the most illustrious families of Bohemia, that of Stamnitz
of Libitz. His heathen name was Wojtisch. 1 He was
entrusted to the care of Adalbert, bishop of Magdeburg,
who gave him his own name in confirmation. On the
death of the archbishop in 981, Adalbert returned to
Bohemia, and lived in thoughtlessness and youthful amuse-
ments, exercising the profession of arms. But the bishop
of Prag dying, he was appointed to the vacant see by the
Emperor Otho II., on his election by the people and clergy,
giving him the pastoral staff, and commanding S. Willigis,
archbishop of Mainz, to consecrate him ; he was ordained
on June 28th, 982, and he never after smiled, so impressed
was he with the responsibility laid upon him.
Pope John XIV. had been assassinated by orders ot
Crescentius the Consul, who had also made away with
Benedict VII. j and John XV. was expelled Rome. An
extraordinary council was convoked by the pope at Rheims
(A.D. 995). Hugh Capet, the new French monarch, who
planned the foundation of a GaUican church, independent
of that of Rome, had deposed Arnulf, archbishop of Rheims.
The German bishops and the pope, enraged at this conduct,
unanimously condemned Hugh at Rheims, and he was com-
pelled to yield. The pope expired during the following
1 Wojtisch is used now to represent Albert in Bohemian, and he is constantly
called S. Wojtisch. He had six brothers^ the youngest of whom, Radim, was his
constant attendant.
3 1 2 Lives of the Saints.
year, and the emperor inarched into Italy for the purpose
of regulating the affairs of .the Church. Crescentius was
speedily overcome and pardoned. Otho, fired by youthful
enthusiasm, imagined that the future happiness of the world
was to be secured by a closer union of the imperial with the
papal power, and with his own hand, although himself
scarcely out of his boyhood, placed the tiara on the head
of Bruno, son of Otho of Carinthia, who was then in his
four-and-twentieth year, and who received the name of
Gregory V. S. Adalbert, who had come from Prag (A.D.
996), in order to witness the ceremony, was enraptured at
the sight of these two noble youths. By his side stood
Gerbert, Otho's preceptor, one of the most profound rea-
soners of the age, and the energetic Bishop Notker of Lidge,
both of whom earnestly sought to re-establish the fallen
power of the Church, whilst the youthful pope, strong in
his native purity, caused even the Italians, in despite of
their moral depravity, to foresee the height to which the
Church might attain if governed by German virtue.
S. Adalbert was sick at heart with disappointment in
Bohemia, his efforts at reformation of the barbarous manners
of his people and to enforce celibacy on the clergy had been
fruitless, and he resigned his see and retired into cloistral
peace at Rome. But Gregory V. would not suffer Adalbert
thus to shrink from his charge, and he insisted on his re-
turning to Prag. Adalbert started. The Bohemians hearing
that he was coming back, and disliking his strictness, mas-
sacred his family and burnt their castles, and sent an ironical
message to tell him that they were so bad that they could not
endure a good bishop. The saint finding it impossible to
re-enter Prag, went north to preach to the heathen in Prussia,
and there he met his death, being set upon by a party of
Wends near Danzic, and thrust through with their spears.
His relics are venerated in the cathedral of Gniesen.
April as .j S. John of Holar. 313
S. JOHN, B. OF HOLAR.
(A.D. 1 121.)
[Icelandic Necrology. Authorities : Three Sagas, the elder Saga,
written about 1200, that of Gunnlaug the monk, written about 1203,
originally in Latin, but it was translated into Icelandic, and the original
has not survived. Arngrim, the abbot, in 1350, says of this Saga, "This
Gunnlaug composed in Latin the life of the blessed John, first bishop of
Holar ; and he testifies, in the prologue of his work, that he undertook to
do so at the prayer of Gudmund, bishop of Holar." In the Icelandic
version, where the author speaks in the first person, the translator has
added, "says brother Gunnlaug," or, "so says Gunnlaug the monk."
The author, in mentioning the pupils of S. John, observes, "All the most
learned men in the northern district were brought up at Holum, and many
of the wisest scholars died in our days, and that I may mention some of
his best pupils whom I have myself seen" he names several. That the
two Sagas were written independently of each other is abundantly evident,
The third Saga is much more modern, and is of little importance. They
are all published in the original Icelandic in the Bishupa Sogur. Copen-
hagen, 1858. No translation exists.] 1
THE first resident bishop in Iceland was Isleifj son of
Gizur. The episcopal residence was fixed at Skalholt, in
1084, and later still, iu 1102, a second bishopric was
erected at Holar, by B. Gizur, who saw the necessity for
dividing his enormous diocese. The north of Iceland,
which is the most populous portion of the island, is cut off
from the south by a vast belt of desert and ice mountains,
and Nature herself pointed out the necessity of separate
organization for both political and ecclesiastical government
A wealthy priest of the grassy valley of Hjaltadal, gave his
paternal estate at Holar to the Church, and Gizur seized
the opportunity for founding a second bishopric. A suit-
able person to occupy the new and important position of
first bishop of the north had to be discovered. By vote of
1 The Bollandtsts seem to have been wholly ignorant of the Icelandic Sagas and
Saints, for they do not mention the latter nor quote the former.
*
- - - -*
Lives of the Saints.
the people, John Ogmund's son was elected. The bishop
of Skalholt gladly confirmed the nomination of the people.
John was a son of Ogmund, a man of birth and property
in the island. When a child, he accompanied his parents
to Denmark, and became a guest of king Swain. One day
his mother sat at dinner with the queen. The child put
forth its hands- to wards some delicacy on the table, and the
mother rapped it over the knuckles, to teach it better
manners. " Do not act thus, dear Thorgerda," said the
queen, "for the hands you strike are those of a bishop."
Whether said in joke, or through prophetic instinct, the
words were treasured by the mother, and remembered in
after years when verified by the consecration of her son.
On the return of the family to Iceland, John was en-
trusted for education to the care of bishop Isleif. It is
pleasant to hear that he always bore a tender affection and
reverence towards the bishop of Skalholt Many years
after Isleif had been laid in his grave, John said of
him, " My foster-father was of all men the most courteous,
the most energetic, and the best." And when some de-
tractors affirmed, " No one talks of Isleif now," the bishop
of Holar said, "That do I; for I will always praise him,
whenever I hear holy men mentioned."
When John was ordained deacon he went abroad, and
reached Denmark on a Good Friday. He immediately
went to the church where king Swain was, and entered as
the priest read the gospel. But the priest had a bad voice,
and his reading was so unedifying, that the impetuous young
deacon, unable to control his zeal, made his way to the
altar, threw a stole over his shoulder, snatched the book
from the minister, and declaimed the Gospel of the Passion
with such power, and in such a musical tone, that the king
and all present were enchanted, and after service was con-
cluded Swain invited him to his court One night, whilst
*
April 33 .] vSl John of Holar. 315
John was with the king, he had a dream. " I dreamt that
I was in a great minster of wondrous magnificence, and
that I entered the choir of the church, and where stood the
bishop's throne was seated our Lord Jesus Christ, and at
his footstool sat king David, striking his harp and playing
exquisite music ; now, sire, lend me an instrument, and let
me try to play it as he played."
Swain immediately provided him with a harp, and John
recalled on it the music he had heard in his dream, and so
beautiful were the melodies, that the king and his company
burst forth in praise to God.
From Denmark John went to Norway, where Magnus
reigned at that time. He arrived at an unfavourable
moment A young Icelander, Gisli by name, had killed a
herdsman of the king, who had murdered his father.
Magnus, highly incensed, threw Gisli into prison and sen-
tenced him to the gallows. Teit, son of bishop Isleif, was
at Drontheim at the time, and he made ineffectual attempts
to obtain the liberation of his countryman. Unable to
bend the king's determination, he had recourse to violence,
broke into the prison, struck off the prisoner's fetters, and
released him. The king immediately ordered his body
guard to surround the Icelanders. Teit and his party drew
their swords, and vowed they would defend Gisli to the
last drop of their blood. Blows would have been struck,
had not Gisli, who was a lad of fifteen, started forward
and surrendered himself, declaring that no one should die
for him.
Gallows were erected in the plain where the Thing, or
council, was to be held, that all might see the execution.
The Icelanders looked on, sullen, with clenched hands and
contracted brows. John trembled with suppressed indig-
nation. When the gibbet was up, and Gisli was being led
beneath it, John cried to king Magnus, "Sire! you gave
316 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 33 .
me a cloak last winter; may I do with it what I choose?"
The king looked angrily towards him, and told him to act
as he thought proper. Then John went to the young man,
and fastened the cloak round him, and fixed the hood to
his shoulders. So Gisli was hung in the king's mantle, and
the disgrace of the death was by this proceeding, in the
eyes of the Norsemen, changed into an honour. The rest
of the day the king was in high ill-humour. The audacity
of the Icelanders had thoroughly ruffled his temper.
John, however, had not done with Gisli. He went,
when all was quiet, to the gallows, on the plea that he
sought his cloak. At this point Gunnlaug introduces an
incident which is not recorded in the Elder Saga, and he
does it, he says, on the authority of certain wise men, but
he candidly admits that the story does not find favour with
every one, for, he says, many people assert that Gisli was
not hung at all, but that John managed at the last moment
to persuade the king to spare his life. The story, such as
it is, is this : John went to the gallows, walked thrice round
it, the way of the sun, genuflexed thrice, and down dropped
the man. Gisli was not dead, but was unable to walk.
This incident admits of explanation without having recourse
to miraculous interference. John had been allowed to
arrange his cloak and hood round the neck of the lad before
he was suspended, and he might well have so protected
the throat that it was relieved from the full pressure of the
cord. The Saga writer says that there are many different
versions of this event Some say that Gisli hung from
Monday till Thursday, but, he adds, written accounts favour
that which asserts that Gisli ; s life was spared by the inter-
cession of John Ogmundson.
John was shortly after sent by Magnus on an embassy to
Ireland, to the king of Munster, whom the Saga calls
Myrkjartan, and Snorro Sturlason in the Heimskringla,
April 33 .) K John of Holar. 3 1 7
Moriartak. 1 The object of this mission was the betrothal
of Sigurd, the Norse king's son, aged nine, to Bjadminja,
daughter of the king of Munster, aged five. A droll
circumstance is related in connexion with this expedition.
John, who knew nothing of Erse, was obliged to provide
himself with an interpreter, and selected a man who made
protestations of his familiarity with the Irish language, but
who had, in fact, acquired little more than an Irish mode
of making blunders.
The interpreter on approaching the king addressed him
with the salutation, "Male diarik" (go mal olc duit arigh),
which Gunnlaug tells us means, " Bad luck to you, king !"
And the king laughing, replied, "Olgeira ragul" (olc re
hoidhche, or dhul), or, " It is ill travelling by night," mean-
ing that when a man is in ignorance he may easily make
mistakes. 3
John was with king Magnus when he visited lona. The
king was then harrying the coasts of Scotland, but he spared
the holy island. "It is told," says the Heimskringla,
"that the king opened the door of the little Columb's Kirk
there, but he did not go in, but instantly locked the door
again, and said that no one should be so bold as to enter
that church hereafter, which has been the case ever since."
Nothing further of importance is recorded of John, till he
returned to Iceland with Ssemund the Learned, the col-
lector of the Elder Edda, whose friendship he had made
abroad. Shortly after his return John married, being then
1 Undoubtedly Muircheartach, king of Munster, though the Sagas call him king
of Connaught. In 1096 Ruaidhri O'Conor was king of Connaught, and Muirchear-
tach O'Brien, king of Munster, and also king of Erin. Moreover, the O'Conors did
not affect the name of Muircheartach.
2 The Icelandic writer spelt the Erse phonetically. His "male" is m'olc, a
compact conversational form of go mal olc. In the king's reply the hoidkcke may
seem a crux ; but as it is pronounced simply hee, the difficulty vanishes. The sen-
tence would sound olc re hee a ghul, which is the Norseman's " olgeira ragul."
318 Lives of the Saints. [Apm 23 .
in priest 7 s orders ; his wife died shortly after, and he then
married again.
Iceland had hitherto been governed by one Bishop, but
the necessity of there being a second prelate in the island
had become so apparent, that Gizur, Bishop of Skalholt,
urged on the island parliament the creation of a second
see; and when this was agreed to by the popular voice, John
Ogmundsonwas nominated to be the first Bishop of the North.
Gizur immediately sent John to Denmark to be conse-
crated by the Bishop of Lund. An amusing story is related
of his arrival It seems that the clergy and choristers of
the cathedral of Lund were in the habit of turning their
heads to look down the nave whenever the door opened
and any one entered the church.
Bishop Ozzur disapproved of this exhibition of inattention
and curiosity, and rebuked his choir for it, ordering them
on no account in future to stare about them during the
performance of Divine worship. John, the Bishop Elect
of Holar, arrived late in the day at Lund, and he and his
party went at once to the cathedral, where vespers were
just ending. John had a beautiful tenor voice, and he sang
with such exquisite sweetness that the archbishop turned
his head, and looked down the nave to see who was the
performer. His clerks were down on him at once. " How
now, Sir Archbishop ! you yourself are the first to break
the rule you established." "You are right," answered
Ozzur; "but there is this excuse to be made for me. I
never before heard such a rich-toned voice, and I thought
it was the voice of an angel, and not that of a man."
The archbishop invited John and his company to his
house, and next morning John showed him the letters
dimissory of Gizur, requesting the archbishop to consecrate
him. Ozzur summoned his clergy, and after consultation
made answer : " Dearest brother, it seems to me that you
*
S. John of Holar. 319
are the best fitted person to occupy the position, and bear
the honours of the episcopate, and I have no doubt that the
see which will have you at its head will be blessed. How-
ever, I hesitate on one point. You have been twice
married, and, under these circumstances, I dare not venture
on consecrating you without orders from the apostolic chair.
Now we advise you to go to Rome and see the pope your-
self, and we will write to him, and if, as we believe, he will
grant a dispensation, then come back as fast as you can,
and in God's name I will consecrate you bishop." John
accordingly visited Paschal II., who raised no objection,
and at once issued the necessary bull to Ozzur to conse-
crate. On the return of John to Denmark, he was conse-
crated by the archbishop of Lund on a Sunday, two days
before the feast of SS. Philip and James, 1106 (April 29th).
We are told that Ozzur gave John much good advice,
which was affectionately and humbly received, and then the
new bishop sailed for Norway, where he purchased a ship's
load of wood for church building, and then made for Ice-
land. He landed at Eyrar on the south coast, at the end
of the summer, and his arrival caused general rejoicing.
His friends and relatives in the south unloaded the ship,
and flitted the timber as -far as Vinverjadal, and the people
of the north transported it thence to Holar.
A more imposing situation for a cathedral church than
Holar can scarcely be found. The valley of Hjaltadal is
perhaps the richest in the whole island. It is regarded as
the garden of the north. The broad green meadows, out
of which rises the knoll on which stands Holar, are watered
by a clear river, and by countless foaming streams that rise
among the glacier ranges, lockiug the valley in on every
side, except the north, where it declines to the blue expanse
of the Skagafjord, which opens into the Polar Sea.
In after ages the church became very wealthy, and the
*
320 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 23 .
bishops of Holar possessed three hundred farms, pasturage
for 15,000 cows, and the driftwood along a considerable
line of coast; besides these, they owned the island of
Drangey, and two tolfaringir, the largest-sized Icelandic
vessels. The present church is modern, having been
erected during the last century; within its porch lies the
old bell of Holar minster, cracked. It is reported to have
tolled of itself when John Arnason, the last bishop, was
executed by orders of that monster of cruelty and impiety,
Christian III., who stamped the Church out in blood
throughout his realm. But the ancient altar of stone be-
longing to the original minster remains, and on it is a
venerable embroidered altar-cloth, whereon is figured John
Ogmundson, vested in white alb with blue apparel, red and
yellow striped dalmatic, blue stole with brown fringe, blue
chasuble with red orphrey, and violet mitre, holding a pas-
toral staff in one hand and giving benedition with the other.
John spent the winter of 1106-7 at Holar, and next
spring went south to the Althing, where he met bishop
Gizur. Their meeting was like that of two brothers. On
his return from the council he began to repair, and to a
great extent rebuild, the ruinous church which already
existed at Holar. For his master workman he selected one
Thorodd Gamlason. He also organized a school, and set
over it a young man named Gisli Finnson, whom he had
brought with him from Gothland, a person of great ability
and learning, and of exceeding piety. A curious circum-
stance is mentioned in connexion with him : " When
Master Gisli spoke God's word to the people on holidays,
then he did not preach without a book, nor rely on his own
memory, but he sought out the writings of the Holy Fathers,
and read from the book that lay on the lectern before him.
This he did on account of his great humility, as he was a
young man; but those who listened thought it more profit-
* ,
Apm 23.] ,51 John of Holar. 321
able to have instruction from holy and remarkable books,
than from his own head and heart." Yet he was perfectly
able to speak extempore with fluency. " His teaching was
without vain-glorious or pompous wording, and therefore
God's power followed his speaking, and penetrated all
hearts, and much amendment and great good results fol-
lowed his exhortations. His instructions were delivered
with great gentleness, though they were easy to be under-
stood by all good men, yet to the learned they were full of
instruction, and afforded pleasure; he could also reprove
those who were bad, and cause them to fear. The conse-
quence was, that on holidays, a crowd innumerable attended
church, inflamed with zeal, and hungering with all desire to
be satisfied with the food of life, which is the Word of
God, for they had now the opportunity of hearing either
the beautiful teaching of the bishop himself, or of the Goth,
Gisli."
During the summer Master Gisli taught the scholars in
the open air, sitting, doubtless, under the south wall of the
old church, where they were sheltered from the keen blasts
vhich sweep from the ocean. A charming picture surely \
before them the great amphitheatre of glaciers shining like
burnished silver; at their feet the rich grass spangled with
potentilla ; and hard by, Thorodd, the builder, chipping the
pine beams that are to serve as pillars in the new minster.
This Thorodd is a shrewd man, and as he chips and chops
day by day in the bright sun, with the scholars repeating
their lessons hard by, he learns along with them, and by
the time that Holar cathedral is built Thorodd knows Latin
grammar as well as any of them.
John laboured to edify his flock as well as to build up
his cathedral. He kept ever before him as his favourite
maxim, " Let your light so shine before men, that they may
see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
VOL. iv. 21
*
222 Lives of t)ie Saints. LA P rii2 3 .
heaven." He was cheerful towards all, but did not shrink
from boldly rebuking vice. He urged his people to attend
Divine worship on all holy days, and he bade the priests
teach the congregation their portions of the service, that
they might respond with intelligence. He exhorted all to
visit a church or a cross daily, and there to offer up their
private prayers and desires. He taught them to use the
sign of the cross before commencing any undertaking, and
in any temptation. He bade them, on first waking, after
having signed themselves, repeat the Creed, and so confess
their faith in Almighty God. Before eating and drinking
they were likewise, by using this sign, to offer to God a
recognition that it was from His hand that all good gifts
came. He advised every one to acquire by heart the
Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and to repeat them seven
times a day, singing them at least before going to rest
Gunnlaug adds to the Creed and Lord's Prayer the Ave
Maria.
He opposed vehemently all sacrifices to Thorr and Odin,
and all witchcraft, all incantations and charms, all taking of
omens from the -moon or from animals. He found it ne-
cessary to alter the names of the days ; and for Odin's-day,
Thorns-day, Freya's-day, and Surtur's-day, to substitute the
names Fourth-day, Mid-week, Fasting-day, and Washing-
day. He was strongly opposed to all licentious songs, and
once, coming upon a young priest who was reading " Ovid's
Epistles and Art of Love," he forbade him to read them, as
it was his duty to keep a check on his passions, and not to
excite them by lascivious poetry. The historian says, " He
loved all his people as brothers and children ; he entered
into all their joys, and sympathised with their sorrows. He
was a father to the poor, and took care of the widow and
the orphan."
His next care was the formation of a cathedral chapter.
2 3 o John of Holar* 323
He collected about him men of pious and zealous disposi-
tions, and settled them in his house, or in houses adjoining
the new cathedral. The names of some of these are given :
Rikinn was his chaplain; Gisli, master of the school;
Hamund, Hjalti, a kinsman, and Orm Thorkelson were
his canons. Some of these were employed in diocesan
supervision, as archdeacons; some went about preaching
and instructing the people ; some attended to the wants of
the poor ; others again were attached to the cathedral and
taught singing, and others attended on the guests. The
chronicler gives an interesting sketch of the life of this little
cathedral chapter. He says: "There was not a house in
the great byre in which they were not engaged in some
useful work. The old men instructed the younger, and the
younger, who were being educated, wrote. All seemed to
think alike, and there was no bickering, and none envied
the other. And when the bells struck up, all fell at once
into their places, and went to church, and there was nought
to be heard in choir but fair songs and hallowed prayers.
The elders behaved with great decorum, and the little boys
followed the example of their masters, and showed no in-
attention. These men were brought up under the hand of
the bishop, John Klcengr, afterwards bishop of Skalholt, a
place he adorned with his learning, a man beloved of good
people, Vilmund, the first abbot of Thingeyri, Hreinn,
the abbot, and Bjorn, who was third bishop of Holar, and
many other good and learned men."
Thus passed fifteen years, during which the bishop ruled
the Church in the north of Iceland with gentleness and
discretion. Towards the spring of 1121 he fell ill, of what
complaint we are not told ; but it is said that he enjoyed
his faculties to the last.
During his sickness one of his old pupils, then a priest in
Knappadal, visited him. He had with him a book which
224 Lives of the Saints.
he had written for another priest, and there was some doubt
as to what was its market value, so that it had been decided
by the two priests that the bishop should name the price
which was to be paid for it. When the Knappadal priest
entered the room where the dying prelate lay, John said,
"Come to me, my son, and kiss your father with the kiss
of peace, as your brethren have done;" so the priest went
up to him and kissed him, and then asked him to value the
manuscript John took the book and turned over the
leaves with his fingers, and said, "It is well written, but he
who was to have purchased it will not have it." " Why so,
my father? He offered to buy it at the price you fixed.''
But the bishop answered, " He for whom you wrote the
book is dead. 1 " And this was so.
The bishop's appetite failed, and he became very weak j
but he never failed to recite his office, night and day. And
when he was anointed, all his clerks stood round him, and
all his scholars were gathered at the foot of his bed. Then,
when he had received Extreme Unction, the Holy Eucharist
was given to him, and he lifted up his voice and chanted
the Communion hymn, "Refecti, Domine, pane coelesti, ad
vitam qusesumus nutriamus seteraam;" and then he began
to sing the psalm, "I will always give thanks unto the
Lord : His praise shall ever be in my mouth. My soul
shall make her boast in the Lord ; the humble shall hear
thereof, and be glad." "And," says the Saga writer, "as
Jie had that psalm in his mouth, and was uttering these
blessed words, his saintly spirit left his body, and was borne
by angels to that joy which is prepared by Almighty God,
where he may always give thanks unto Him, with other
saints, and where, as he spake in the psalm, His praise
shall ever be in his mouth." He fell asleep on April 23rd,
1 12 1, aged sixty-nine. He was laid, in his pontifical vest-
ment, with staff in hand and mitre on his head, in a tomb
to the south of the choir-school he had built
i 24.1 Daniel. 325
April 24.
SS. SABAS AND FELLOW SOLDIERS, MM. at Rome, A.D. 272.
SS. EUSEBIUS, NEO, LEONTIUS, LONQINUS, AND COMP., MM. at
Nicomedia, A.D. 303^
S. DANIEL, H-M. at Gerona, in Spain*
S. GREGORY, B. of Elvira, in Spain, end of ^th cent.
S. DEODATUS, Ab. of Blois, 6th cent.
S. HONORIUS, B. of Brescia, in Italy, A.D. 586.
S. MELLITUS, B. of London, and 4rchb. of Canterbury, A.D. 624.
SS. BOVA, ^. JbsJ't AND DODA, P. at Rheims, >]th cent.
S. EGBERT, P., Mk. in lona, A.D. (729.
S. WILLIAM FIRMAT, P.H. at Mortain,in Normandy, A.D. 1090.
S. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINOEN, Fr. M. at Seevis, in the Orisons, A.D. 1622.
S. DANIEL, KM.
(DATE UNCERTAIN.)
[Spanish Martyrologies. The life of this saint is pretended to have
been written by Andrew, his disciple; and as such was inserted by
Domenecci, in his Spanish history, though he omitted and altered much
which even he with his uncritical abilities was unable to swallow. Pape-
broeck, the Bollandist, caustically says, "We have received the original,
as divided into twelve lections, according to Benedictine ritual. But it is
little gain to have gotten it. For not only do those things which the
stomach of Domenecci could not digest, move us to sickness, but we have
ascertained besides, that all the account of Daniel's life in the East is
taken word for word, only with some amplification, from the Greek life of
S. John in the Well, which we gave March 30th." The compiler of the
legend adapted it to Daniel, by altering the names ; thus the mother of
John was Julia; the mother of Daniel is Uliana; the sister of John was
Themistia, that of Daniel is Theomita. The imperial officer in the life
1 Another instance of the disastrous fraud of the Pseudo-Dexter. Higuera, the
Jesuit, who forged it, finding these names in the Greek Menology, just published
by Cardinal Sirlet, without place of martyrdom, and the Roman Mar'yrology being
also silent on that point, inserted them in his Chronicle as martyrs in Spain,
at Totana, near Carthagena j and he was followed unsuspiciously by the whole
train of Spanish Martyrologists. But the other Greek Menologies and Menseas
show that these were sufferers at Nicomedia. The body of S. Leontius was given
by Pope Urban VUI-, in 1641, to the catbedral of Osnaburg. The Osnaburg Breviary
lessons are a tissue of historical blunders.
326 Lives of the Saints. [A P ru 34 .
of John is Pompeiamis, in that of Daniel is Poaipanus ; and so with the
names of the cities. The second portion of the life is certainly fabulous,
it is impossible to reconcile it with history.]
story of this saint is that he was a hermit in
i^j/! the East, who, at the call of God, came to
^i 1 Europe, and visited Aries, in company with one
Crescentius, of that city, who had resided three
years at Jerusalem. At Aries a furious persecution was
being waged, and Daniel was condemned by the governor
to be cast into the fire, but as he came forth unhurt, he was
flung into the Rhone, but also without effect. Then he was
cast to wild beasts ; but they would not touch him, so the
governor ordered his head to be struck off. His body was
translated to Gerona, in Spain, where it is an object of great
reverence.
S. MELLITUS, ARCHB. OF CANTERBURY,
(A.D. 624.)
[Roman and Anglican Martyrologies. Authority : Bede, Hist. Eccl.
l.b. i, cc. 29, 30 ; ii. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.]
S. MELLITUS was a Roman abbot sent by S. Gregory
the Great to England to the assistance of S. Augustine, in
601. He was the head of a second mission, and to him
S. Gregory directed on his way an epistle, still extant In
this letter, S. Gregory enjoins great respect for the sacred
places of the heathens, and forbids their demolition. He
only commands them to be cleared of their idols, and to
be purified by holy water for the services of Christianity.
New altars are to be set up, and relics enshrined in the
precincts. The oxen which the heathen used to immolate
to their gods were to be brought in procession on holy
days. The huts of boughs, which used to be built for the
*-
April 34.] S. Mellitus. 327
assembling worshippers, were still to be set up, the oxen
to be slain and eaten in honour of the Christian festival;
and thus gently were the heathen to be turned to the truth,
retaining all such customs as were harmless or beautiful,
but baptized and sanctified.
After S. Mellitus had laboured three years in Kent, he
was ordained bishop by S. Augustine, and sent among the
East Saxons, to London. Sibert, king of the East Saxons,
was baptized, and S. Mellitus laid the foundations of the
church of S. Paul, in London, among the ruins of a temple
of Diana, and of the church of S. Peter's, Westminster.
But the men of Kent and Essex had not heartily em-
braced Christianity. The new king of Kent was pagan in
morals as in creed. He was inflamed with an unlawful
passion for his father's widow. The rudeness of the East
Saxons shows how little real knowledge of true religion had
been disseminated ; they insisted on partaking of the fine
white bread which the bishops distributed to the faithful ;
and when the clergy refused unless they submitted to be
baptized, they cast them out of the land.
Mellitus sailed to France with Justus, bishop of Roches-
ter, but was afterwards recalled to Kent On the death of
S. Lawrence, archbishop of Canterbury, he was chosen to
succeed him, and held the see for five years, being the
third archbishop of Canterbury.
S. EGBERT, P. MK.
(A.D. 729.)
[Anglican Martyrologies, Authority : Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cc. 4,
27 1 iv. 3, 36 ; v, 10, TI, aj. This life is taken from "The Monks of the
West."!
THE life of this monk is an example of the numerous
* *
328 Lives of the Saints.
and salutary relations which existed between the Irish,
Kelts, and the Anglo-Saxons. He was one of the many
English who crossed the sea in numbers so considerable as
to fill entire fleets, and who threw themselves upon the
Irish shore like flights of bees, to enjoy the hospitality,
both intellectual and material, of the Irish monasteries;
while on the other hand, the Greek Theodore, archbishop
of Canterbury, and primate of England, lived, by a happy
exchange of brotherly kindness, surrounded by a crowd of
young Irish monks. Some of the Anglo-Saxons, who
sought a superior ascetic education, frequently filled places
of the highest dignity there, and edified their countrymen
by their knowledge and virtue ; while others remained in
Ireland, casting in their lot for ever with the monastic ranks
of that country.
Egbert stood in the first rank of those numerous scions
of the Anglo-Saxon nobility who in their youth became
voluntary exiles for Christ, in order to devote themselves in
Ireland, far from their relations and their possessions, to a
life of penitence, and, above all, to the study of the Holy
Scriptures. He was only twenty-five when the terrible
pestilence broke out which made such cruel ravages in the
British Isles. He was then, with several of his countrymen,
in a monastery, the site of which is at present represented
by the picturesque ruins of Mellifont; he saw his com-
panions dying around him daily, and when at last he was
himself affected by the contagion, he had strength enough
to leave the infirmary, and withdraw to a solitary place to
review his life, and weep over his sins. He had even the
courage to pray God to spare his life until he had expiated
the faults of his youth by good works, and made a vow, if
his prayer was granted, to remain an exile for ever, and
return to England no more. He then went in and lay
down again, beside another young man, his closest and
April 24.3 . S. Egbert. 329
most intimate friend, who was mortally stricken, and lay in
a sleep that was almost death. All at once the young
sufferer awoke. "Ah, brother Egbert, what have you done?"
he said, " I hoped so that we should have entered eternal
life together ; and now you let me die without you : know
at least that your prayer is granted." The young man
died that night; but Egbert survived for sixty-five years,
and became a model of all monastic virtues. Not only did
he call forth the affectionate admiration of his Anglo-Saxon
countrymen, but even in Ireland, so fertile in marvels of
holiness, he appeared an eminent saint He emulated the
most illustrious in his zeal for knowledge, in his eagerness
to distribute to the poor the gifts lavished upon him by the
rich, and in the austerities of his life. The great historian
of the Christian glories of the Anglo-Saxon race has not
disdained to inform us that during Lent, and even for forty
days after Christmas, and fifty days after Whitsuntide, his
entire nourishment consisted of a little bread, with milk
from which the cream had been carefully removed. It was
at this price that the right of speaking with authority to the
nations, and of walking before them in the way of salvation,
was usually purchased.
He employed his influence over the two races, which
rivalled each other in honouring his holiness, only for their
good, their honour, and the general welfare of the Church.
Though he did not succeed, notwithstanding his entreaties,
in turning Egfrid, the king of his native Northumbria, from
the crime of his abominable invasion of Ireland, he was
more fortunate with others of his countrymen, whom he
transformed into missionaries of the faith to the Germans.
In his ascetic exile in Ireland he was the first of the Anglo-
Saxons to conceive the generous, the divine idea of sending
to the help of the mother-country, to Germany, which still
belonged to Satan, the sons of her Britannic colony, to
*
Lives of the Saints. EApni 24.
show her the path of virtue and of life. He knew well
whence it was that his Anglo-Saxon ancestors had come,
and that they had left behind them in darkness a crowd
of other tribes, of the same stock and language, whose
image stole upon his imagination, as did that of the little
Irish children, whose plaintive voices S. Patrick heard in
his dreams, and whose visionary appeals decided that saint,
once a slave, to become the apostle of their country.
Faithful to the vow which forbade him to land, even in
passing, upon the soil of his native island, Egbert chartered
a ship to take him direct from Ireland to Friesland, on the
northern coast of Germany. But as he was about to
embark, one of his travelling companions, who had been a
monk at Melrose, lying down to sleep after matins, saw in
a dream the prior Boswell, the tender friend of Cuthbert,
and beloved master of the novices at Melrose, one of the
great saints of the Celtic Church in Northumbria, who
charged him to warn Egbert that the will of God
ordained him to give up his Germanic mission, and to
devote himself, willingly or unwillingly, to the in-
struction and conversion of the Columbite monasteries.
"Their ploughs do not go straight," said the prior to his
former pupil ; " they must be put back into the right
furrow." This dream, though twice repeated, made no
impression upon Egbert; but his ship having been cast
ashore, he acknowledged the will of God, and gave up his
cherished project, so far as related to himself. He sent in
his place, however, as many of the fervent and zealous
monks amongst his own countrymen whom he could move
to such a determination; when any returned discouraged
by their want of success, he sought and found others more
capable or more fortunate; and it was this beginning made
by Egbert that gave to Germany Vicbert, Willibrord, Swid-
bert, the two Ewalds, and other holy bishops or abbots.
April**.] S. Egbert. 331
whose names are justly venerated by Germany as her
apostles.
It was in the year of Ceolfrid's death, eleven years after
the death of Adamnan, and seven years after that of
Wilfrid, that the Anglo-Saxon Egbert succeeded in over-
coming the most obstinate stronghold of Celtic dissidence,
and procured the triumph of Roman unity in the monastic
metropolis which had been founded by the most illustrious
saint of the Celtic Church. A stranger, of an alien, and
often hostile race, thus accomplished the task in which
Adamnan had failed. He was from the first received by the
monks of lona with the greatest respect; and employing
no means but those afforded him by the delightful suavity
of his disposition, the soft and persevering influence of his
conversation, and, above all, the example of a life so
perfectly conformed to his doctrine, he triumphed over the
inveterate dislike of the sons of S. Columba for that inno-
vation which was to re-unite them to the rest of Christen-
dom. It is not probable that he succeeded at once, since
he lived for the thirteen last years of his life at lona, in the
long famous island which he hoped to crown with a new
glory by bringing it back into the orbit of Catholic unity.
But his victory was complete and final. He died at the
age of ninety, on Easter Day, the regular celebration of
which had pre-occupied, excited and agitated so many
saints before him. It fell, in the year of his death, on the
1 4th of April that is to say, on a day when it had never
been, and never could be observed, according to the
computation followed by the Irish. After having com-
menced, along with his brethren whom he had the joy to
lead back to Catholic unity, to celebrate on earth the
greatest solemnity of the liturgical year, he went to com-
plete it in heaven with our Lord, the holy Apostles, and all
the citizens of the celestial country, where the eternal
celebration ceases no more.
232 Lives of the Saints.
S. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN, M.
(A.D. 1622.)
[Roman Martyrology. Beatified by Benedict XIII. , in 1729, and canon-
ized by Benedict XIV., in 1745.]
S. FIDELIS was born in 1577, at Sigmaringen, a little
town in the principality of Hohenzollern. His father Johann
Rey, and his mother Genoveva von Rosenberg, were of
noble birth and good Catholics. He studied in the
university of Freiburg, in Breisgau, and became a lawyer
at Colmar, in Alsace. But his heart was drawn to God,
and he longed to devote himself to the salvation of the poor
souls who had been led by Haller of Bern, Zwingle of
Zurich, and OEcolampadius of Basle, into doubt and dis-
belief in some of the great verities of the Christian
religion. Accordingly, Fidelis resigned his profession, and
joined the Capuchin friars, in Freiburg, in 1612. He
speedily became conspicuous through his zeal, fervour and
piety. He was ordained priest, and sent to Weltkirchen,
as superior of the Capuchin convent there, and he was
successful in converting many Calvinists to the Gospel oi
Christ. A pestilence having broken out in the garrison,
which extended to the inhabitants of Weltkirchen, Fidelis
devoted himself to the sick with entire self-forgetfulness.
His reputation became so great that the congregation of
the Propaganda, established by Gregory XV., having asked
of the provincial of the Capuchins zealous missionaries to
combat the heresies which were spreading over, and
corrupting the faith and morals of Switzerland, he was
chosen to head a mission in the Grisons. His success
was astonishing, so mightily grew the Word of God and
prevailed, and the Zwinglian preachers taking the alarm,
resolved on his murder. On the 24th of April, 1621, he
went from Grusch to Seewis, where he exhorted the
S. FIDELIS OP SIGMARINGEN. After CaMer.
April 24.
April 84.] S. Fidelis. 333
Catholics to stand constant in the faith once for all de-
livered to the saints. During his discourse, a Zwinglian
shot at him with his musket, but missed him. His people
implored him to place himself in safety ; he replied that he
was ready to shed his blood for Christ The same day he
started to return to Grusch, and fell into the hands of a
party of Zwinglians, headed by one of their preachers, who
were lying in wait for him. They endeavoured to force
him to admit their false doctrines. He replied that he had
come to refute their errors, and not to embrace them.
Then one of the party shot him, and he fell on his knees.
"Lord Jesus," said he raising his eyes and hands to
heaven ; " Have mercy on me ; and do thou Mary, Mother
of God, succour me !" Another of the Protestants fired at
him, and the ball struck him ; then he fell forward, and the
rest finished him with their long knives. Thus he died, at
the age of forty-five ; and like S. Stephen, the protomartyr,
by his death gained the soul of his persecutor, for the
minister who had stood by consenting to his death, re-
nounced his heresy, and was received into the fold of
the Catholic Church.
The murderers had hacked off the head and arm of the
saint. These were recovered, and placed in the cathedral
of Chur j his body was translated to Weltkirchen.
Lives of the Saints. fA P ri] as .
April 25.
S. MARK THE EVANGELIST, AT., B. of Alexandria, circ. A.D. 68.
S. ANIAN, B. of Alexandria, circ. A.D. 86.
SS. PHILO AND AGATHO, DD. at Antioch, 2 nd cent.
S. STEPHEN, M.B. of Antioch, A.D. 479
S. PHCEBADIUS, B. of Agen, end of $th cent.
S. MACCAIL, B. in Ireland, A.D. 49Q. 1
S. MACCALD, OK MAUGHOLD, B. of Man, 6th cent,
S. MACEDONIUS, Patr. of Constantinople, A.D. 516.
S. ERMINE, B. andAb. of Lobbes, A.O. 75^.
S, FLOREBERT, B. of Liege, A.D. 746.
S. FRANCA, Abss. at Piacenxa, A.D 1218.
S. MARK THE EVANGELIST.
(ABOUT A.D. 68.)
[Some versions of the Martyrology of S. Jerome on Sept. C3rd, but almost
all others in April 2.5th ; as Bede, Hrabanus, Ado, Usuardus, Notker, the
Greek Menology and Mensea, and the Ro man Martyrology. In the Roman,
Jan, sist is the feast of the translation of his relics to Venice ; at Venice
is also observed the least of his apparition, on June 25 th.]
JjHIS holy Evangelist is believed to have been
born of Jewish parents, deriving their Origin
from the tribe of Levi, and of the line of the
priesthood. He has also been thought to have
been sister's son to the Apostle S, Peter, though some have,
without reason, confounded him with John surnamed Mark,
and Mark, sister's son to S. Barnabas. His name, which is
Roman in form, was probably assumed by him, according
to the usual custom of the Jews, as illustrated in this case
of S. Paul (see Jan. 25th), on his removing into Italy. He
was converted by some of the Apostles, and probably by
S. Peter; indeed, he was his constant attendant in his
travels, supplying the place of an amanuensis and inter-
S. Maccail gave the veil to S. Bridget, see Feb. ist., p. xf . This is nearly all
that is known of him except the date of his death.
April a*.] ,51 Mark Evangelist. 335
preter : for though the Apostles were divinely inspired and,
among other miraculous powers, had the gift of languages
conferred on them, yet the interpretation of tongues was a
gift more peculiar to some than to others. It was probably
S. Mark's talent in expounding S. Peter's discourses, whether
by word or writing, to those who did not understand the
language wherein they were delivered that caused him to be
so constantly in attendance on S. Peter, whom he accom-
panied in his Apostolical progress, when he preached the
Gospel in Italy and at Rome. He is traditionally said to
have founded the Church in Aquileia, and there to have
written the Gospel which bears his name. 1
From Aquileia he sent Hermagoras, its first bishop, to be
ordained by S. Peter.
S. Mark was next sent into Egypt to plant Christianity in
that country, fixing his main residence at Alexandria, and
the places thereabouts ; where so great was the success of
his ministry, that he converted multitudes, both of men and
women, not only to the embracing of the Christian religion,
but to more than ordinarily strict profession of it, insomuch
that some have traced the institution of the monastic life to
his followers.
S. Mark did not confine his preaching to Alexandria and
the Oriental parts of Egypt, but removed westwards to-
wards Libya, where, though the people were both barbarous
in their manners and idolatrous in their worship, yet by his
preaching and miracles he made way for the reception of
1 This copy, or one supposed to be the original, was long preserved in the
cathedral at Aquileia. la 615 we hear of it in the monastery of S- John at Frixili.
In 108$, it was in that of Belinese, whence it was conveyed to the Cathedral of
Aquileia, at the end of the iath century, or the beginning of the X4th. It formed a
portion of a volume containing the four Evangelists. Charles IV. obtained, in
i357> two sheets of it, which he gave to the Cathedral of Prag. The five other
sheets were taken to Venice, in 1420, where they still are. The sheets containing
the other Evangelists are preserved at Cividale, in Friuli. The MS. is in Latin,
in uncial letters ; it belongs to the 6th century.
236 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 2 <j.
the Gospel, and left them not till he had not only gained
them to, but confirmed them in the profession of it
Returning to Alexandria he preached freely, and ordered
and disposed the affairs of the Church, and wisely provided
for its perpetuation by constituting governors and pastors
of it But the restless enemy of the souls of men would
not long suffer him to be quiet It was the season of Easter,
at which time the great solemnities of Serapis happened
to be celebrated, when the minds of the people being .
excited to a passionate vindication of the honour of their
idol, the mob broke in upon S. Mark, then engaged in the
solemn celebration of Divine worship, and binding his feet
with cords, dragged him through the streets and the most
craggy places to the Bucellus, a precipice near the sea, and
for that night thrust him into prison, where his soul was
supported and encouraged by a Divine vision. Early the
next morning the tragedy began again, he was dragged
about in the same manner till his flesh being torn off, and
his blood run out, his spirit failed, and he expired. But
their malice did not die with him, for they burnt the saint's
body; the Christians however collected his bones and ashes,
and decently entombed them near the place where he was
wont to preach. His relics were removed with great pomp
from Alexandria, in the beginning of the 9th cent., to
Venice, where they are greatly venerated. The Saint is
adopted as the patron of the state, and one of the richest
and stateliest churches that the world can boast of at this
day is there erected in his honour. However, the body
of S. Mark was also supposed to be at Constantinople,
whence his head was brought, and given to the Church
at Soissons. At Cambrai is one arm, at Leth another
arm and hand; but the Benedictines at Marolles claim
another arm. But it is certain that the body at Venice has
not lost its arms j there must consequently be a mistake
S. MARK, EVANGELIST.
From the Vienna Missal.
lApril 25.
April a*.] , Mark Evangelist. 337
somewhere. In the Church of S. Mark, at Rome, are also
a portion of the skull and of an arm.
S. Mark suffered on April 2 5th; though the certain year of
his martyrdom is not precisely determined by the ancients
he seems, however, to have survived SS. Peter and Paul.
His Gospel, the only book which he left behind him, was
written, doubtless, for the use of Gentile Christians : some
have thought (but apparently without sufficient reason) that
it was composed at the entreaty of the converts at Rome,
who, not content to have heard S. Peter preach, pressed his
disciple, S. Mark, to commit to writing an historical account
of what he had delivered to them. S. Mark's close intimacy
with S. Peter must have afforded him great opportunities
of obtaining full information for this purpose : his great
impartiality in his relations is shown in that he, so far from
concealing the shameful lapse and apostasy of S. Peter his
dear tutor and master, sets it down with some particular
circumstances and aggravations of which the other Evan-
gelists take no notice. It is uncertain whether S. Mark's
Gospel was originally written in the Greek or the Latin
language; though probably the former. The Liturgy of
S. Mark, anciently used in the Church of Alexandria,
seems, in its main order and substance, to be coeval with
the Apostolic ag<e, and to be derived from the instructions
and appointment of the blessed Evangelist. On this day
(April 25th), the Church sings her Great Litanies in solemn
procession, to thank God for His benefits, and beseech Him
to bless the fruits of the earth.
S. Mark has the Lion as his symbol, because he has set
forth the royal dignity of Christ; or, according to others,
because he begins with the mission of S. John the Baptist,
"the voice of one crying in the wilderness," which is
figured by the Lion ; or, according to a third interpretation,
the Lion was allotted to S. Mark because there was, in the
VOL. IV. 22
*
338 Lives of the Saints.
middle ages, a popular belief that the young of the lion was
born dead, and after three days was awakened to vitality
by the breath of its sire ; some authors, however, represent
the lion as vivifying his young not by his breath but by his
roar. In either case the application, is the same; the
revival of the young lion was considered as symbolical of
the Resurrection, and S. Mark was commonly called the
"Historian of the Resurrection." Another commentator
observes that S. Mark begins his Gospel with " roaring -"
"the voice of one crying in the wilderness;" and ends it
fearfully with a curse, "He that believeth not shall be
damned :" and that, therefore, his appropriate attribute is
the most terrible of beasts, the lion.
S. MACCALD OR MAUGHOLD, B. OF MAN.
(ABOUT A.D. 518.)
[Irish Martyrologies. Reverenced as patron of the Isle of Man.
Authorities : Mention in the life of S. Patrick.]
WHEN S. Patrick was at Sabhall, or Saul, his favourite
retreat, he met with one Maccald, Maugold, or Machaldus,
a man of profligate life, and a captain of robbers, who
harassed the country with their continual plunderings and
murders. This man, seeing S. Patrick walking along a
road, entertained a design of killing him, and said to his
comrades, "Behold that impostor who has led the people
astray ; let us try whether his God is strong or not" Then
one of them, named Garvan, pretending to be sick, lay
down under a cloak, and, when the saint came near them,
the others said to him; " One of our party has been taken
ill, pray sing over him some of thy incantations, that so he
may be restored to health." The saint went to him, raised
the cloak, and the man was dead. His companions were
April 25.] 6 1 . Maccald. 339
so struck with this prodigy, that they cried out, " This is
truly a man of God." Maccald was converted, and after-
wards baptized. On asking what penance he should
undergo for his crimes, S. Patrick ordered him to quit
Ireland without taking anything with him except a coarse
garment, and, entrusting himself in a leather coracle, to
land in the first place whither the wind wafted him, and
there to serve God. He obeyed, and was carried by the
winds to the Isle of Man, where he was kindly received by
two bishops, Conindrus and Rornulus ; who directed him in
his penances, and with so much spiritual advantage, that he
succeeded them as bishop of the island, and became re-
nowned for his sanctity. He is called Maughold in the Isle
of Man, and probably lies buried in the church that bears
his name, which is remarkable for some ancient sculptured
crosses in the churchyard. To him is attributed the division
of the island into seventeen parishes. 1
"On the N.E. side of that magnificent headland which
forms the southern limit of Ramsey Bay, is a little spring
bursting out of the chinks of the uplifted and twisted grey
schists. Immediately above rises the pile of rock, which
fetching up with a fine sweep from the valley extending
between Port-le-Voillen and Port Mooar, sinks down again
precipitously nearly 500 feet into the salt water. Round
about the spring, a soft green-sward clothes a few roods of
ground, and for a few yards, where it trickles down the face
of the steep, a crop of rushes luxuriates. Where the spring
gushes forth, the rock has been hollowed into a small basin,
and over it has been erected a simple shed of rough unhewn
blocks of the rock immediately at hand. Hither the saint
is said to have resorted ; nor is it at all improbable that
1 In an old Manx ballad of the early part of the i6tH cent, there is a traditional
statement that oratories or quarterland chapels were built by S. German, (d. 447),
but that afterwards S. Maughold threw several into one, and so formed the seven-
teen parishes.
340 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii a $,
nearly 1,400 years ago, at the very font, he administered
the baptismal rite. Certainly it was for many ages in
great repute for its medicinal properties, and was resorted
to on account of its sanctity by crowds of pilgrims from all
parts. Nor is it yet forgotten. The first Sunday in the
month of August calls forth the neighbourhood to their
annual visit to the well, and bottles of the water are there
and then procured, carried away to the homes of each, and
preserved for any emergency with scrupulous care. The
peculiar sanctity of the church of S. Maughold and its
immediate precincts has just been alluded to. There is a
bgend detailed in the " Chronicles of Man," 1 which seems
worthy of being given "in exlenso." Somerlid, Jarl of
Argyle, had taken up arms against Godred Olafson. A
sea-battle was fought between them on the eve of the
Epiphany (1156), with such doubtful success to either,
that the next morning they came to a compromise to
divide between them the sovereignty of the Isles. Under
this compromise Somerlid acquired all the Isles, excepting
Man, south of the point of Ardnamenchan. From that
period the sovereignty of the Isles ceased to be vested in
one single person.
"In the year 1158 Somerlid again with a fleet of fifty-
three ships came to Man, where encountering Godred, he
defeated that prince, who then fled to the court of Norway
to have assistance. On the approach of Somerlid to the
Isle, the Manx people conveyed their money and valuables
to the sanctuary of S. Maughold's church, in hopes, says the
chronicler, that the veneration due to S. Machaldus, added
to the sanctity of the place, would secure everything
1 "The Chronicle of Man and the Isles," beginning at the year xooo, and ending
after the Scottish conquest of Man, in the year is66, was written by the monks of
Rushen Abbey, in Man, and seems to have been conveyed to Furness, and found
a resting place in the British Museum, where it now is. Published In the Anti-
q litates Celto-Normannicce, by J. Johnstone, Copenhagen, 1786.
April 2 $.] Maccald. 341
within its precincts. After the battle in which he was
victorious, the fleet of Somerlid lay at Ramsey, and one of
his captains, Gil Colum, made a proposal to surprise the
church of S. Maughold, and at least drive off the cattle
which were feeding round the churchyard. With much
reluctance Somerlid consented, pronouncing at the same
time these words : ' Let the affair rest between thee and
S. Machaldus; let me and my troops be innocent; we
claim no share in thy sacrilegious booty/ Gil Colum laid
his plan accordingly, arranging with his three sons to effect
the surprise at daybreak of the following morning; but as
he lay asleep in his tent at dead of night, S. Machaldus
appeared to him arrayed in white linen, and holding a
pastoral staff in his hand, with which he thrice struck him
in the heart Awaking in great terror of mind, he sent for
the priests of the Church to receive his confession, but
they had no words of comfort for the dying wretch. One
of them even proceeded to pray that S. Machaldus would
never withdraw his hand till he had made an end of the
impious man, and immediately he was attacked by a swarm
of flies, and about six in the morning expired in great
misery and torture. Somerlid and his whole host were
struck with such dismay on the death of this man, that as
soon as the tide floated their ships, they weighed anchor,
and with precipitancy returned home." 1
It is stated in Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops,
that the ancient armorial bearing of the see of Sodor and
Man was azure, S. Columba at sea in a cock-boat all
proper in chief, over head a blazing star or. If these
were really the arms of the united bishoprics of Sodor and
Man, and not of Sodor alone previous to the union, the
figure in the cock-boat or coracle is probably that of
S. Maughold rather than that of S. Columba, as it bears so
1 Cumm ing's " Ruins and Monumental Remains of the Isle of Man," p. 030.
*
342 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii a5 .
close a resemblance to the legend of his arrival upon the
island ; and he was the senior saint, and held by the Manx
in special repute.
S. ERMINE, AB., R
(A-D. 757-)
Roman and Gallican Murtyrologies. Authority : A life by Anso,
Abbot of Lobes, d. 800, his contemporary, at least he had known Ermine
in his youth.]
S. ERMINE was born at Erclie, near Laon, and was
ordained priest by Madalgar, bishop of Laon. Shortly after,
Ermine became a monk under S. Ursmar, abbot of Lobes.
When that holy abbot felt himself incapacitated by his
advanced age for governing the house, he substituted S.
Ermine for himself. Ermine, like S. Ursmar, received con-
secration as a bishop, and became a regionary bishop among
the neighbouring people, to whom he carried the light of the
Gospel
April 2 6.] S. Cletus. 343
April 26.
S. CLETUS OR ANACLETUS, M. Pope of Rome, circ. A.D. 69.
S. MARCELLINUS, M. PofeofRome, A.D. 304.
S. BASIL, B. of Amasea, M. ff.t Nicomedia, circ. A.D. 322.
S. TRUDPERT, ff.M. in Brtisgau, A.D. 643.
S. RICHARIUS, Ab. ofCentule, in France, ^th cent.
S. PASCI-IASIUS RATBERT, Ab. of Corbet, A.D. 851.
S. CLETUS, POPE.
(ABOUT A.D. 69.)
[Roman Martyrology, and those of Bcde, and Usuardus, and Wandel-
bert ; by Ado on July i2th, by Notker on July isth, by Hrabanus Maurus
on April 29th.]
IHERE is much difficulty in determining the
succession of the first bishops of Rome. It is
probable that S. Linus was the first, and that he
was succeeded either by S. Cletus (Anacletus)
or S. Clement Fleury says, " It is certain that these were
the three first bishops of Rome ; but neither their order,
nor the time of their pontificate, is certain." According to
one account, S. Clement governed the church at Rome for
ten years, to A.D. 77, and S. Anacletus succeeded him.
But it is by no means certain that S. Clement was dead.
It is said that S. Clement ceded the pontifical throne to
avoid a schism, and that he did not die till long after. 1
But on the other hand Burton says " Pearson gives reasons
for fixing the martyrdom of Linus in the year 67, and it
seems nearly certain that the person who succeeded him,
as head of the Roman Church, was Anencletus. If we
suppose Linus to have suffered soon after the date of S.
Paul's second epistle to Timothy, it is very possible for
Anencletus to have been appointed by S. Peter, who arrived
l Fleury, Hist. Eccl., vol. I,, lib. ., c. 47,
244 Lives of the Saints. [A P nj 3 6.
soon after, with the concurrence of S. Paul, who was then
in prison. Pearson supposes that Anencletus survived but
a short time, and that he died in 69; and though the
generality of writers have assigned a longer period to his
ministry, there are perhaps fewer difficulties in adopting the
shorter chronology. There is certainly some evidence that S.
Clement, who is called the third bishop of Rome, received
his appointment from S. Peter; but this can hardly be
taken to mean that S. Peter survived Anencletus as well as
Linus. We know from S. Paul's own words that S. Clement
was his fellow-labourer as early as the year 58 ; and if he
was by birth a Roman, as some authors have asserted, it is
not unlikely that the two apostles named him as a fit person
to succeed Anencletus, in case he should be suddenly cut
off. Though it is perhaps impossible to reconcile all the
traditions upon the subject, we may at least infer from them
the great anxiety of SS. Peter and Paul not to leave the
Christians of Rome as sheep without a shepherd ; and we
may perhaps assert, without aiming at greater accuracy,
that when the two apostles were martyred, S. Anencletus
was at the head of the Roman Church, and the person next
in authority to him was S. Clement ' ;1 There can be little
question that Anacletus, or Anencletus, is identical with
Cletus ; the former was the Greek, the latter the Latin form
of the same name, which signifies the Blameless. In the
Roman Martyrology S. Anacletus is commemorated on
July 13th, and S. Cletus on April 26th; but we may regard
this as two commemorations of the same person, as is the
case with S/Agnes, S. Peter, and many others.
The body of S. Cletus is preserved in the Vatican chapeL
1 Burton, Lectures, x,, p. 242*3.
April 26.3 S. Marcellinus. 345
S. MARCELLINUS, POPE, M.
(A.D. 304.)
[Roman Martyrology. Bede, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Hrabanus.J
THE history of pope S. Marcellinus has been so involved
in int erested fiction, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to
discover how much of truth underlies the fable that ob-
scures it For nearly a thousand years his fabulous history
passed for truth along with the equally imaginary synod of
Sinuessa, and has been much used by theologians and
canonists in support of their theories.
At the beginning of the persecution under Diocletian, so
runs the fable, the pontifex of the Capitol represented to
Pope Marcellinus that he might without scruple offer in-
cense to the gods, for the three Wise Men from the East
had done so, before the star led them to Christ Both
agreed to let the point be decided by Diocletian, who was
at that time in Persia, and he naturally ordered that the
pope should sacrifice. Accordingly Marcellinus was con-
ducted to the temple of Vesta, and offered there, in the
presence of a crowd of Christian spectators, to Hercules,
Jupiter, and Saturn. At the news of this defection from
the faith, three hundred bishops left their sees, 1 and gathered
together to hold a council, first in a cavern near Sinuessa,
but, as this would not hold more than fifty, afterwards in
the town itself. Along with them were thirty Roman
priests. Several priests and deacons were deposed merely
because they had gone away without protesting, when they
saw the pope enter the temple, Marcellinus, on the
other hand, they could not judge. "Be thou the judge/ 1
1 A number quite impossible for that country, especially in a time of persecution
But Luitprand makes the number 180, a number adopted also by Platina. In the
revision of the Breviary by Clement VII I., the words in the lesson were altered to
* many bishops."
346 Lives of the Saints. [A P ru 3 6.
said the bishops to him; "let thy condemnation be thine
own, or thy justification thine own, only let it be in our
presence. The first seat cannot be judged by any."
Marcellinus denied his guilt the first two days ; but on
the third day, being abjured in God's name to speak the
truth, he threw himself on the ground, covered his head
with ashes, and avowed his guilt Thereupon he denounced
his own deposition, on the 23rd August, 303. After this,
the bishops remained quietly at Sinuessa, until Diocletian,
in Persia, having received intelligence of the synod, sent
orders for the execution of many of the three hundred, and
this was carried into effect; Marcellinus himself being among
the number of sufferers. 1
Since the time of Baronius not a single historian worth
mentioning has renewed the attempt to maintain the
authenticity of this synod of Sinuessa and its acts. Never-
theless, it has found its way into the Breviary. The Very
Rev. Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, says, " At the
time when this lesson which is now in the Breviary was
drawn up, the fall of Marcellinus was believed as a fact
later on it was called in question, and the arguments used
against it are by no means to be despised ; the Church,
however, has not thought well to change the lesson as it'
first stood, 3 the more so as questions of this nature do not
touch upon the Faith."
Whether any residuum of truth, any actual lapse on the
part of Marcellinus in the persecution, lies at the bottom of
the fabrication, cannot now be stated with certainty. Con-
temporary writers says nothing on the subject, but then
there may be this reason for their reticence, that they were
' The forger of this story forgot that the persecution of Diocletian did not begin
till alter the Persian war, and the return of the emperor.
'This lesson was inserted in the Roman Breviary in 1^43, and was anally and
authontatzrely sanctioned by Pius V. ; the lesson used before that was simply an
account of the martyrdom of the pope.
*-
April ae.j S. Marcellinus. 347
unwilling to perpetuate the memory of such a scandal.
Later on, the Donatists, in the time of S. Augustine, pro-
fessed to know that Marcellinus, and with him his successors,
Melchiades, Marcellus, and Silvester, who were at that time
priests, had delivered up the Scriptures, and had offered
incense to the gods in the persecution. "S. Augustine
treated the story as a Donatist fabrication," says Dr.
Dollinger. 1 But, says the Jesuit Henschenius, S. Augustine
in his book " De Uno Baptismate" c. 16, is opposing the
Donatists who objected to their condemnation by Pope
MelchiadeSj 2 on the ground that he had, as priest, become
a renegade along with Pope Marcellinus. S. Augustine
denies that Melchiades was thus guilty, but passes over the
case of Marcellinus, or refuses to admit the guilt of the four,
without evidence produced to substantiate it. He is not
concerned with the guilt of Marcellinus, and so does not
treat of it at length. The words of S. Augustine are
" What need is there for us to plead the innocence of these
bishops of the Church of Rome, who are pursued with such
incredible calumnies? Marcellinus and his priests Mel-
chiades and Marcellus and Silvester are all charged with
having surrendered the sacred Scriptures and with offering
incense to the gods. But the conviction has not been
brought home, so as to convince us of their guilt by certain
documentary evidence. Petilianus says they were criminal
and sacrilegious. I reply that they were innocent, and why
should I labour to prove my assertion, when he makes no
effort to substantiate his accusation?" And then he goes
on at length to argue that when the charge was brought
against Csecilian of Carthage, and tried by order of Con-
stantine ; no mention of Pope Melchiades was made, as
i "Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters."
He became pope in 311 ; Marcellinus died in 304. The condemnation of the
Donatists was in 3x3.
348 Lives of the Saints. [April*.
certainly would have been the case, had he been guilty, for
he was reigning at that very time, 311. The answer of S.
Augustine is adroit, and the Bollandists suspect that by bring-
ing all his energy to bear on Melchiades, to demonstrate the
falsity of the accusation brought against him; S. Augustine
shows that he felt the case of Marcellinus was more difficult
Henschenius says, "There can be little question from the
conduct of the Donatists, and the reply of Augustine,
restricted to the defence of Melchiades, that the Donatists
were convinced of the lapse of Marcellinus, and that this-
originated the calumny against Melchiades, whom they
pretended had fallen along with the pope ; as is the way
with all slanderous fables, it was formed around a kernel of
truth. And besides, it is incredible to me how so calumnious
a fable, and that one so injurious to the see of Rome, and
one which Augustine in Africa would not believe, if it were
destitute of any foundation could have been accepted by
Roman writers, who had every opportunity of verifying or
exploding it, and that moreover without discussion, and how
they could have admitted it into their chronicles and the
histories of the popes, and that too without mention of
Melchiades, and his companions as offenders, against whom
the slander had been raised. "
The oldest list of popes, reaching to 530, contains men-
tion of the fall of the pope. The Catalogue of pontiffs of
Rome, which was compiled about A.D. 1048 contains an
account of the fall of Marcellinus, but says nothing about
the council of Sinuessa, only "He was led to sacrifice and
to offer incense, and he did it And after a few days being
led to repentance, he was executed and crowned with mar-
tyrdom." This statement was in the ancient Breviaries, till
unfortunately the myth of the council of Sinuessa was sub-
stituted for it by Pope Pius V. in 1542.
There cannot remain a shadow of doubt as to the utterly
-*
April aej S. MarceUinus. 349
mythical character of that council. 1 There can be no
doubt it was a fiction deliberately composed for a definite
purpose, between the years 498 and 514, in the pontificate
of Symmachus. At that time the two parties of Laurentius
and Symmachus stood opposed to each other in Rome.
People, senate, and clergy were divided ; they fought and
murdered in the streets, and Laurentius maintained himself
for several years in possession of part of the churches.
Symmachus was accused by his opponents of grave offences.
He must answer for himself at a synod, which King Theo-
doric had summoned. If he should be found guilty he
must be deposed, cried the one party, while the other party
maintained that for a pope there was no earthly tribunal.
This was the time at which Eunodius wrote his apology for
Symmachus, and this was the occasion of the appearance of
the forged acts of the mythical council of Sinuessa, and also
of the " Constitution of Silvester," and the " Acts of Xystus
purging himself of an accusation made by Polychronius of
Jerusalem." All these forgeries were by the same hand,
and were composed for the same purpose. As in the
apology of Eunodius, so also in the " Constitutions," and
the "Gesta Xysti," and the "Acts of Sinuessa," the prin-
ciple is inculcated that a pope has no earthly judge over
him. If he lies under grave suspicion, or if charges are
brought against him, he must himself declare his own guilt,
and pronounce his own deposition as Marcellinus, or he
must clear himself by the simple asseveration of his own
innocence, as did Xystus III.
1 Dupinsays "It is notorious among all learned men that the acts of the council
of Sinuessa are fictitious, and that the story on which they are grounded is a fable
which has no foundation in antiquity." Fleury ignores both the fall of the pope and
the council ; so does Natalis Alexander.
*
250 Lives of the Saints. [A P rii 3 6.
S. BASIL OF AMASEA, B.M.
(ABOUT A.D. 322.)
[Roman Martyrology, Coptic Kalendar, Greek Mensea, and Menology
of the Emperor Basil. Authority : The entirely genuine and trustworthy
Acts written by John, priest of Nicomedia, and an eye-witness of much
which he describes.]
THE Emperor Licinius, of whom we have spoken in the
account of the martyrdom of SS. Hermylus and Stratonicus
(Jan. 1 3th), was married to the sister of the Emperor Con-
stantine. The empress had among her ladies-in-waiting a
very beautiful Christian maiden, named Glaphyra. Licinius,
having set his eyes upon her, determined to seduce her,
and made to her infamous proposals by the mouth of his
chamberlain Benignus. The poor girl, feeling her helpless-
ness surrounded by the creatures of the emperor, told the
empress, who at once despatched her in boy's clothes from
the palace, and gave her four Christian slaves and money.
Glaphyra escaped to Amasea in Pontus, where Basil the
bishop took her under his protection. As the bishop was
building a church, Glaphyra undertook to write to her
mistress for subscriptions. By this means Benignus dis-
covered her retreat, and obtained orders from the emperor
to bring both the bishop and the maiden in chains to
Nicomedia, where Licinius resided. But before the cham-
berlain had reached Amasea, God took the poor hunted
maiden to His rest, out of reach of her toi mentor, and she
is commemorated by the Roman Church on Jan. i3th, and
by the Greeks on April 26th, with S. Basil. The bishop
was brought to Nicomedia, and was there cruelly scourged,
and his head struck off, for having sheltered a maiden from
the lust of an emperor.
*-
ril 2b.] ,5*. TrudperL 351
a TRUDPERT, H.M.
(A.D. 643.)
("Venerated in the Black Forest and Breisgau, and in the diocese of
Constance. The Martyrology of Usuardus amplified for the Church of
Elsass, the Strasburg Breviary, &c. Authority : The Acts, not ancient
as we have them, but written in 1279 I ^ ut tn ^ s was on ty an amplification
of an earlier life written before 903 by Erkenbald the abbot of S. Trud-
pert.J
IN the Miinsterthal, one of the most beautiful valleys of
the Black Forest, is the ancient monastery of S. Trudpert.
It lies besides the Neumazen-Bach, enclosed by wooded
hills, not far from the ancient town of Staufen, and the
ruined castle of Staufenburg, the seat of a powerful race,
which became extinct in 1602.
In 640 a wanderer arrived at this castle, then belonging
to count Othpert of Hapsburg, he was a pilgrim from Rome,
but of northern race, seeking some green and secret retreat
where he might pass the rest of his days alone with nature
and nature's God. The count, pleased with the pilgrim,
whose name was Trudpert, recommended him to settle in
the grassy glen of the upper Miinsterthal, where rocks and
dense forest would wall him out from the world. Trudpert
sought the place, loved it, and settled beside the clear
stream.
Othpert built him a little chapel, which was consecrated
lo SS. Peter and Paul, by the bishop of Constance, and
sent some of his servants to assist him in cutting wood and
gathering in his hay. Two of these fellows bearing a
grudge against the hermit why is not known resolved to
kill him ; and one day, as Trudpert lay asleep on his bench
before his cell, in the hot sun, one of them clave his skull
with an axe, and ran away leaving the weapon in the .
wound. A monastery afterwards rose on the site of the
murder*
*
352 Lives of the Saints. cA P rii 2 6.
S. RICHARIUS, AB. OF CENTULK
(7TH CENT.)
[S. Richarius or Riquier, as he is called in France, is commemorated by
Usuardus and Wandelbert, and the Roman Martyrology. Authority : A
life by Alanis, dedicated to Charlemagne. There is another life pretending
to be by a contemporary, but it is a forgery.]
THIS saint was born at Centule, near Abbeville, at the
close of the 6th or the beginning of the yth century. He
was converted by two Irish priests, Cadoc and Frigor, who
passed through his village, and he began to live a life of
self-mortification. He was ordained priest, and then visited
Ireland. On his return to France he was summoned to the
court of king Dagobert, who was pleased with him. He
founded an abbey at Centule in 638, and another called
afterwards Forest-Moutiers, three leagues and a-half from
Abbeville, in the forest of Cressy. Riquier passed the rest
of his life in this forest with a single companion.
His relics are preserved in the church of S. Riquier,
which occupies the site of the ancient abbey of Centule.
In art he appears with the fleur-de-lys on his habit, to
represent his relation to the royal family of France.
April a?-) 61 Antfrimius. 353
April 27-
S. ALPINIAN, P. in Aguitania, yd cent.
S. ANTHIMIUS, B.M. at Nicomedia, A.D. 303.
S, ANASTASIUS I., Pope of Rome, A.D. 402.
S. JOHN THE CONFESSOR, Ab. at Constantinople, A.D. 803.
S. ZITA, 7. at Lucca, in Italy, A.D. 1272.
B.PETER ARMENOJALD, C. at Tarragona, A.D. 1304.
S. ANTHIMIUS, B.M.
(A.D. 303.)
[Roman Martyrology, Ado, Notker,. Usuardus, Wandelbert, &c.
Authority : Eusebius viii., c. 6. Greek acts exist, but they are not
genuine. 3
FIRE having broken out in the palace of Nicome-
dia, it was maliciously attributed to the Christians,
and a savage persecution of them began. Anthi-
mius, bishop of Nicomedia, was beheaded, and
"whole families of the pious were slain inmasses atthe imperial
command, some with the sword, some also with fire. Then it
is said that men and women, with a certain divine eagerness,
rushed into the fire. But the populace, binding many upon
planks, cast them into the sea/ 3 Such is the account of
this persecution given by Eusebius.
S. ANASTASIUS I., POPE.
(A.D. 402.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authorities : S. Jerome, Ep. xvi., Socrates
vii. 9; Sozomen vii. 24; Theodoret v. 23 ; S. Augustine, Ep. char. ; S.
Paulinus of Nola, Ep. 16 ; and Anastasius the Librarian, circ. 869.]
S. ANASTASIUS succeeded S. Ciricius on the throne of S.
Peter on Oct. gth, A.D. 399; and died Nov. 3rd, A.D. 401.
VOL. iv. 2-?
* _
254 Lives of the Samts.
S. Jerome says he was a man of holy life, endued with
apostolic zeal, and adds that God took him out of
this world lest Rome should be plundered under such a
head; for in 410, it fell into the hands of Alaric, king of the
Goths.
S. ZITA, V.
(A.D. 1272.)
[Roman Martyrology. Beatified by Innocent XII. in 1696, and canon-
ized by Leo X. Authority : A life written by a contemporary.]
S. ZITA was the child of poor parents at Bozzanello, a
village on the slopes of Monte Sagrate, three leagues from
Lucca. She was born in 1218, and at the age of twelve
was sent into domestic service to Pagano de Fatinelli, a
nobleman of Lucca. She remained all her life in the same
house, endearing herself to her master and mistress and
afterwards to their son and his wife. Every morning she
rose early to attend the first mass, and open her heart to
her Lord and God. One Christmas Eve the cold was in-
tense, and she was preparing to go to church, when her
master, compassionating her thin gown, threw his furred
mantle over her shoulders, and bade her wrap herself in
that against frost and snow, but to be sure to bring it him
back agairt At the church door, since then called the
angel door, she saw a poor man crouching, numb with
cold, who held up to her a ghastly white face, and extended
his shaking hands for an alms. She instantly wrapped the
warm mantle round him, bidding him wear it till she came
out of church. When the service was over she could not
find the beggar. He had made off with the cloak, and she
returned home, alarmed and distressed. As may be ex-
pected, she met with a severe rebuke, which grieved her,
however, less than having caused annoyance to a kind
*
April ^.] S. Zita. 355
master, and violated, unintentionally, his confidence. But
next morning a stranger came to the door, and without a
word of explanation left the mantle in the hands of Zita,
and she, amazed and grateful, could not but regard him as
an angel Many pretty stories are told of this poor and
pious servant maid, who walked in such close communion
with the unseen world, that her story abounds in marvels,
and we are not altogether sure where natural events end
and marvels begin. One eve of S. Mary Magdalene's Day
she made a pilgrimage to a church under that invo-
cation, two miles from Lucca; household affairs detained
her till evening, and she was surprised by night However,
she pressed on to the church; but when she reached it, the
darkness was complete, the sky overcast with rain-clouds,
and the doors of the little pilgrimage-shrine were closed.
She was very tired, and sinking on her knees before the
door, began to pray. But the long and toilsome mountain
walk, at the end of a hard day's work, had exhausted her,
and she fell asleep. The rain poured down, and the wind
moaned about the eaves of the solitary church ; but still she
slept on, with a little votive candle she had brought with
her, standing by her side. Suddenly she awoke, the wan
day was breaking in the East, and at her side twinkled the
candle, lit by unknown hands, and angel wings had been
spread over her, so that her garments were not soaked by
the heavy rain.
On another occasion she started for a long pilgrimage to
a church near the sea, five miles beyond Pisa, and Pisa is
some ten miles from Lucca. She started with a companion,
who, however, left her at Pisa, and when her devotions
were ended Zita had to return alone to Lucca. In passing
through Pisa, as evening fell, she was invited by a friend to
sleep there; but Zita had her work to do the following
morning for her master and mistress, and was resolved not
356 Lives of the Saints. [A P ni 37 .
to allow her pilgrimage to interfere with that ; so she pushed
on. On reaching the baths, some way further, an acquaint-
ance who lived there also pressed her to stay, but she again
refused. As she traversed the mountain of S. Giuliano,
and night gathered in dark, an aged hermit who dwelt there
advised her not to risk prosecuting her journey by night,
and offered her shelter. But no, her strong sense of duty
thrust her on. Further on she passed a castle, and the
sentinels compassionating her, and knowing that the road
was unsafe, on account of robbers, offered her hospitality.
This was refused, and she pressed on, though her limbs
tottered, and she was faint, having scarcely eaten anything
all day. At length she sank down, dead-beat, on the side
of a little spring, at the first cock-crow, and dipping her
mouth into the water took a refreshing draught At that
moment a woman stood beside her, and touching her asked
if she were going further. Zita rose, and, rejoiced to meet
with a companion, walked on at her side. And now her
exhaustion seemed to go, and her vigour to be recruited, as
she made the rest of her journey with her unknown com-
panion. When they reached the covered bridge over the
Ozzorio, the gate to it was locked, but it opened before
them. It was the same with the gate of the city. Zita
sought her home, and as she turned on the doorsteps to
thank her companion, she had vanished ; then she hoped,
and hoping believed, that the Virgin Mother had been at
her side. Zita died in her sixtieth year, beloved by all in the
house where she had served so faithfully for forty-eight years,
and it is said that when she died a bright star shone over
Lucca. Some of her relics are preserved in her chapel on
Monte Motrone, near Lucca; others at Genoa, in a church
dedicated to her; others at Parma. A toe was given by the
bishop of Lucca to Sir William Langstow, who built a chapel
at Ely to her honour, in 1456. Other relics are in Portugal
April as.] .S^S*. Vitalis & Valeria, MM. 357
April 28,
S. MARK, B.M. at A two, A.D. 82.
SS. VITALIS AND VALERIA, MM. at Ravenna and Milan, circ. A.D. 171.
SS. APHRODISIUS, CARLIPPUS, AGAPE AND EUSEBIUS, MM. at Tarsus.
SS. THEODORA AND DIDYMUS, MM. at Alexandria, A.D. 303.
SS. PROBA, V.M., AND GERMANA, V. at Henin-Lietard, in Hctinaitlt.
S. ARTHEMIUS, B. of Sens, end of 6th cent.
S. CRONAN, Al. ofRoscrea, in Irelaitd, circ. A.D. 615.
S. PAMPHILIUS, B. of Salmon and San Pelino, in Italy, ?*& cent.
S. PRUDENTIUS, B. of Tarazona, in Spain.
SS. VITALIS AND VALERIA, MM.
(ABOUT A.D. 171.)
[Roman Martyrology ; venerated at Ravenna and Milan. It is un-
certain when these suffered, whether under Nero, or in the and century.
Baronius gives the date 171. The account of their passion is ancient ; it
is contained .in the Acts of SS. Gervasiusand Protasius their sons, (June 19),
it is certainly older than 386, as it contains no mention of the discovery of
their relics at that date.]
/|N the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, according
to Baronius, a physician of Ravenna, named
Ursicinus, was condemned to death as a Chris-
tian. The sight of the preparations for his
execution made his courage fail, and he was almost dis-
posed to apostatize, when Vitalis, the father of SS. Gervais
and Protasius, who was present, cried out to him to en-
courage him to play the man for Christ Ursicinus re-
covered his resolution, and suffered on June tpth. Then
Paulinus, the magistrate, ordered Vitalis to be brought
before him, and placed on the rack, and then to be cast
into a pit, and earth and stones to be thrown in upon him
till he was dead. His wife, Valeria, was taken at Milan,
whither she retired on her husband's death, and on her
refusing to eat meat offered to idols, she was so severely
358 Lives of the Saints.
beaten that she died two days after of the blows she had
received
The very interesting church of S. Vitalis at Ravenna
"a bad copy of the temple of Minerva Medica of Rome," 1
was built in the reign of Justinian by S. Ecclesius, arch-
bishop of Ravenna, and was consecrated in A.D. 547, by
S. Maximianus. In it is the tomb of the saint, and a
fountain which issues from beneath it, which is held in
great veneration.
SS. APHRODISIUS AND COMPANIONS, MM.
(DATE UNCERTAIN.)
[Roman, Gallican and Spanish Martyrologies. Ado, Usuardus, and
Notker.]
S. APHRODISIUS and his companions have met with a very
remarkable fate. The Martyrologies mention Aphrodisius,
Carilippus, Agapitus, Eusebius, Malina, and others, as
martyrs, and some add, at Tarsus, in Cilicia. But at
Beziers, in Prance, S. Aphrodisius is venerated on this day
as the first bishop of the see ; and a strange story is told of
him, He is said to have been an Egyptian, who received
SS. Mary, Joseph, and the infant Saviour, into his house
on the occasion of the flight into Egypt. And when he
heard of the miracles and death and resurrection of Christ,
he was converted, and went and joined himself to the
Apostles, and received the Holy Ghost along with them on
the day of Pentecost Then he was appointed bishop
under S. Peter, and travelled with him. Afterwards he
went with Sergius Paulus to Gaul ; Sergius Paulus became
first bishop of Narbonne, and Aphrodisius first bishop of
1 Ferguson's Handbook of Architecture.
*-
^5*6". Apkrodisiws & Companions. 359
Beziers, by the appointment of S. Paul, the apostle of the
Gentiles. And there, -he suffered martyrdom with his
companions, Carilippus, or Ciryppius, Agapius and Euse-
bius. But as Henschenius has shewn, this story is made
up of scraps of legendary matter from various sources, of
absolutely no authority. 1
This is not all. On the strength of the place of martyr-
dom of these saints not being inserted in some Martyr-
ologies, the forger of the Chronicle of Flavius Dexter in the
1 6th cent set them all down as having suffered at Capana,
in Portugal, in the year 76. Relying on the impudent
forgery of Higuera, in 651, De Arze Reynoso, B, of
Plasencia, in whose diocese Capana was, obtained authority
from the Holy See to solemnize the festival of these saints,
as a double with proper office, and indulgences for forty
days to all who should assist at the offices, and pray for the
extirpation of heresy and peace between Christian princes.
S. Aphrodosius is represented at Bourges with his head
in his hands.
SS. THEODORA AND DIDYMUS, MM.
(A.D. 303.)
[By the Greeks on April 5th. Ado, Usuardus, and Maurolycus.
Roman Martyrology. Authority: The genuine Acts in Greejc, partly
copied from the public register, and the rest written by an eye-wit ness .]
EUSTRATITTS PROCULUS S , Augustal prefect of Alexandria,
ordered the virgin Theodora to be led before him. He
began the interrogatory by asking of what condition she
1 Giry gives this story, and adds, "It is taken from the Martyrology of Du
Saussaye, who derived it from the traditions and monuments of the Church of
Beziers," and this with Henschenius's dissection of the fable, showing whence
each scrap was derived, before his eyes 1
* The Bollandists think this a mistake for Proconsul; but Consular* were never
allowed to govern in Egypt. No one above the rank of Knight was Augusta! Prefect.
* -- - ---
360 Lives of the Saints. [A P ru 2 8.
was. She replied, "I am a Christian." The Prefect.
"Are you a slave, or a free woman ?" Theodora. "Jesus
Christ hath set me free. But my parents were free, as you
call it" The Prefect." Call the town curator." Then he
asked him concerning the virgin, and learned that she was
of good family. Turning to Theodora he asked, " Why
art thou not married?" Tfaodora. "I prefer serving
Jesus Christ" The Prefect. "If thou wilt not sacrifice,
according to the imperial command, I will have thee put in
a place of infamy." Theodora. "If I resolve to keep my
soul undefiled, I shall not be guilty of the violence to
which I may be exposed." Eustratius. " Thy birth and
beauty inspire me with pity. Sacrifice, or thou becomest
a scandal to thy family, and to all decent folk." TJieodora.
"I trust myself to my God. He will protect me. Jesus
Christ will snatch his dove out of the grasp of the falcon."
The Prefect. "I pity thee, and I give thee three days in
which to consider the matter." Theodora. " Then suffer
me to spend these three days in peace, unassailed by any."
Eustratius. " It is just Go, treat Theodora with respect,
as becomes her birth, till the three days are expired."
Now when this space of reprieve was ended, and Theo-
dora was still in the same mind, the prefect ordered her to
be taken to the public stews. And as she entered the den
of infamy, she raised her eyes to heaven and prayed;
"God most mighty, Father of Jesus Christ my Lord,
succour thy child, and deliver me from this evil place
unhurt Thou didst bring Peter out of prison, watch and
guard my innocence, that all the world may know that I
am thine."
Now there was a young Christian, named Didymus, at
Alexandria, who had heard the sentence, and he was full
of zeal for God, and resolved to deliver the virgin from
the place of wickedness and peril. Therefore he went to
*
April 28.] S. Cronan. 361
where she was, dressed in soldier's clothes and armour,
and shutting the door behind him, he said, " Fear not, my
sister, I am thy brother in Jesus Christ. I am come to
save thee. Change clothes with me." So she disguised
herself in his cuirass and greaves, and went forth. But the
agony of fear, and the sudden reaction was too great for her
tender spirit to bear, and she fell down, and her soul
escaped to God, and was at rest Then Didymus was
taken, and brought before the prefect, and at his command
his head was smitten off, and his body consumed in a
fire.
S. CRONAN OF ROSCREA, AB.
(ABOUT A.D. 615.)
[Irish Martyrologies. Authority : A life written several centuries later,
founded on tradition.]
CRONAN was a native of Ely O'Carrol, in Munster.
When arrived at a proper age for embracing the religious
state, taking along with him his maternal cousin, Mobai, he
went to visit some holy men in Connaught. After some
stay he went with Mobai to Clonmacnois, but did not
remain there long. Next we find him erecting several
religious houses, in one of which, at Lusmag, in the barony
of Garrycastie, King's county, he spent a considerable time.
Having given up this establishment to some monks,
Cronan returned to his own country, and erected a cell
near the lake, or marsh of Cree, which cell was called
Seanruis. He was in this place about the time of the
death of S. Molua, of Clonfert-molua; for it is related that
this saint in his latter days visited Cronan at Seanruis, and
demanded of him the Holy Eucharist, that he might take it
with him. Cronan gave it him, and Molua recommended
*
362 Lives of the Saints. cA P rii a s.
his monastery to his protection. How long Cronan re-
mained at Seanruis is not recorded. The cause of his
leaving it was this. Some strangers, who had come to pay
him a visit, were not able to find it out, and in their wander-
ings remained a whole night on the bog without food or
roof to shelter them. This so distressed Cronan, that he
determined to quit this lonesome spot, and removed to the
high road, where he erected a large monastery, which in
course of time gave rise to the town of Roscrea. Here he
spent the remainder of his life, employed in good works,
and most highly esteemed. On one occasion he appeared
to Fingen, king of Munster, who was bent on chastising
the people of Meath on account of some horses that had
been stolen from him. The king had a great veneration
for the saint, whom we find, when very old and blind, on a
visit to CasheL Not long after he died on the 28th of
April, in, according to every appearance, some year of the
reign of the said king Fingen, and consequently about
619, or, at the latest, 626.
S. PRUDENTIUS, B. OF TARAZONA.
(DATE UNCERTAIN.)
[Spanish Martyrologies. Authority : A life full of fables and additions,
not in any way trustworthy.]
WHEN it is said that authors differ as to the date of this
saint so far that some place his death in the year 300,
others in 390, others in 570, and others again, relying on
an amusing story in his life, in 1120, it will be seen that not
only is no reliance to be placed in his history, but also
that there 'is every probability that several bishops of
Tarazona of the same name have been run into one, and
which of these was the saint^ it is impossible to decide.
5! Prudentius. 363
One absurd story which attaches to a S. Prudentius, bishop
of Tarazona, in the reign of Alphonso, king of Aragon, is
too quaint to be omitted. During the absence of the
Spanish soldiers from Garraye, a fortified city in the diocese
of Tarazona, the priests taking it for granted that the valiant
men had fallen before the Moslem, married their wives \
and the soldiers on their return found that the gates of
Garraye were closed against them, and the priests, their
children, and others, who had remained in Garraye, were
determined to forbid them admittance. A battle ensued,
and the veterans were routed by the clerics, and driven up
the mount Moncayo, where they fortified themselves, and
made daily descents upon the inhabitants of Garraye when-
ever they showed themselves outside the walls. This
condition of warfare continued some time, till Prudentius
called the archbishop of Toledo and his six other suffragans
to Tarazona to consult what had better be done. The
archbishop and the seven bishops resolved to ride to
Garraye and remonstrate with the people. This they did,
but without effect However the citizens prepared them a
feast, but in malice, killed and cooked dogs and cats for
the table. Now when the feast was spread, Prudentius
blessed the viands, whereupon all the cats and whelps
started up on the dishes, and began to yelp and squall,
so the archbishop and his seven suffragans, panic-struck,
rushed out of the room, mounted their horses, and galloped
from town. And when they had reached a safe distance,
they turned and cursed the city. Then came a plague of
ticks, such as attack cats and dogs, upon the town, and
slew all the people, so that it is a desolation unto this
day.
*
364 Lives of the Saints.
April 29.
S. TYCHICUS, Disc. tfS. Paul, itf cent.
THE SEVEN THIEVES, MM. in Corcyra, circ. A.D. xoo. 1
SS. AGAPE AND SECUNDINUS, 55., MM., EMILIAN, M. t TERTULLA AND
ANTONIA, ?r. t MM. at Cirta, in Africa, A.D. 260.
S. SENAN, C. in Wales, yth cent.
S. GUNDEBERT, M. at Avemes, near Rhsims, 8th cent.
S. WILFRED II., Archb. tfTork, c.rc. A.D. fax.
S. HUGH,^&. of Cluny, A.D. 1109.
S. ROBERT, Ab. of Melesme, A.D. mo.
S. PETER MARTYR, O.P. at Milan, A.D. 1252.
S. SENAN, C
(7TH CENT.)
Anglican Martyrology, Ferrarius, and the Bollandists. Authority :
Mention in the life of S. Winifred, by Rupert, Ab. of Shrewsbury, circ.
1140. Alford in the Annales Angtiee, says that S. Senan was greatly
venerated in Devon and Cornwall, and that Port Senan is called after
him.]
UNT SENAN was a hermit in the North of
Wales, who after a holy life, was buried, along
with S. Chebbi, or Cubbi, in the place where
afterwards the body of S. Winifred was laid.
S. GUNDEBERT, M.
(STH CENT.)
[Venerated in the archdiocese of Rheims. Authority : The lections for
his office in the Rheims Breviary, which have gone through various
amplifications.]
S. GUNDEBERT, or GUMBERT, was a nobleman in the
archdiocese of Rheims, when his brother, S. Nivrad, occu-
1 Converted in prison by S. Jason, July xath, and martyred. Commemorated
by the Greeks on April ajth; by the Latins on April a gth.
i'<
April 39.] S. Hugh. 365
pied that see. His wife was S. Bertha. As they had no
children he gave all his property to the Church, and
founded a convent dedicated to S. Peter at Rheims, and a
monastery at Avesnes. He then left his wife and went to
Ireland, where he entered a monastery. Some marauders
having invaded the lands of the abbey, he went out to
intreat them to respect the property of the monks, but they
fell on him and killed him. His body, and that of S. Bertha,
are preserved at Avesnes.
S. HUGH OF CLUNY, AB.
(A.D. 1109.)
[Roman, Gallican, and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authority : A life
by Hildebert, B. of Sens in 1107, and Archb. of Tours in 1125. Hilde-
bert was a monk of Cluny, trained under Hugh. Also a letter by Hugh,
monk of Cluny, to his abbot, Pontius, in 1120, containing much concern-
ing S. Hugh, and a life of S. Hugh written afterwards by the same monk,
published in the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis. Another by the nephew of
S. Hugh, Robert, Ab. of Vezelay. An epitome of his life written imme-
diately after his decease by the monks, Ezelo and Gilo. Also an anony-
mous life, and a hymn in honour of the saint by Peter the Venerable.
S. Hugh was canonized by Pope Calixtus II.]
S. HUGH, sixth abbot of Cluny, was born in 1024, and
was descended from the ancient dukes of Burgundy. He
placed himself under the guidance of S. Odilo, abbot of
Cluny, who, perceiving his merit, made him prior of the
community. The wisdom of his government caused him
to be selected, in 1047, to reform the abbey of Paternac, in
the diocese of Lausanne. In the year 1049 he succeeded
S. Odilo. He multiplied abbeys of the order, and accord-
ing to Ordericus Vitalis, had ten thousand monks under
his rule. By his advice and counsel, a reconciliation was
effected between Gregory VII. and the emperor Henry IV.
The sovereigns of Europe showed him the greatest respect,
*
366 Lives of the Saints. [Aprii 9 .
and Leo IX. sent him to Hungary, with the title of legate,
to reconcile king Andrew to the emperor Henry.
S. ROBERT OF MOLESME, AB.
(A.D, 1 1 10.)
[Roman, Galilean, and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authorities : A
life written by an anonymous monk of Citeaux, under the abbot Ado.
(d. II97-)]
S. ROBERT, founder of the Cistercian Order, was born in
Champagne, in the year 1018, and embraced the Benedic-
tine rule in the abbey of Moutier-la-Celle, near Troyes.
He became prior of this monastery, afterwards abbot of
S. Michael, at Tonnerre, and was sent to be superior to
the hermits of Colan, in the forest of Molesme, in the
diocese of Langres. Their relaxed discipline, however,
caused him to leave them, and he founded a reformed
abbey in the forest of Citeaux, and built a church there, in
1098. But the hermits of Molesme having returned to a
better mind, obtained his recall from the pope, and he
died at Mosleme, on March 2ist, mo. Several sermons,
letters, and a chronicle of Citeaux, have been attributed to
him, but on insufficient evidence.
S. PETER MARTYR, O.P.
(A.D. 1252.)
[Roman and Dominican Martyrologies. Canonized in 1253, a year
after his death. Authority : -A life by a contemporary, Thomas de
Lentino, O.P., afterwards Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.]
S. PETER was born of heretical parents, at Verona, in
the year 1206. At that time the sect of the Cathari, or
39 .] 6". Peter Martyr, O.P. 367
Manichseans, were extensively spread over the north of
Italy, Piedmont, and the South of France, where they were
called Albigenses. The nature of their heresy has already
been stated. 1 Peter was sent to school, where he learned
the Apostles' Creed. One day his uncle called the child to
him, and asked him what he had acquired at school. The
little boy at once began to recite the creed. The uncle
was angry, and scoffed at the idea of the world having
been created by God, and endeavoured to infuse doubt
into the mind of the child. But in vain. The boy grew
up with an intense love and faith in the Catholic religion,
and having entered the order of S. Dominic, became a
most zealous preacher against heresy. In 1232 he was
appointed inquisitor-general. The heretics, maddened at
his success in confounding their arguments, and his mira-
cles convincing the people, determined to kill him, and on
the 5th of April, 1252, as he was on his way from Como
to Milan, at a place called Barlasina, they fell upon him,
and one of them struck him on the head with a hatchet,
inflicting a ghastly wound, from which the blood gushed
out Peter fell on the ground, but gathering himself on his
knees, unable to speak, he dipped his finger in his blood,
and traced on the dusty road these words, the beginning
of the Creed, Credo in Deum, "I believe in God," then
the murderer killed him with a dagger -blow on the
left breast, piercing his heart. His companion, brother
Dominic, was also grievously wounded, and died a few
days afterwards. The body of the martyr was carried to
Milan, and laid in the church of S. Eustorgius. Like
S. Stephen, the protomartyr, dying, he obtained the con-
version of his murderer. Carinus, who had dealt the blow,
having eluded all efforts to capture him, was filled with
compunction, and entered the Order of S. Dominic, in
1 Match jth, B. Peter of Castelnau, pp. 74-84; also January, pp. 140-141,
-*
368
Lives of the Saints.
[April 39.
which he lived and died holily. The festival of S. Peter
was fixed by pope Innocent IV., for April 29th, because it
was possible for Easter Day to fall on April 5th, the day
of his martyrdom.
In Art he is represented with a hatchet cleaving his
head, and a dagger in his left breast
S Peter, Martyr.
April 3 o.j S. Maximus. 369
April 30.
S. MAXTMUS, M, at Ephesus, circ. A.D. 350.
S. EUTROPIUS, 5.M. q/ 1 Saintes in France, yd cent.
SS. MARIAN, JAMS?, AGAPIUS, AND COMPANIONS, MM. at Cista and
Lambessa in Africa, A.D. 359.
S. MATERNIAN, B. of R helms, tfh cent.
S. LAURENCE, P.M. at Novarra, 4th cent.
S. DONATUS, B. of Evrcsa in Spirits, circ. A.D. 387,
S. SEVERUS, B. of Naples, $th cent.
S. HOYILDA, P. in Champagne, $th cent.
S. MICHOMER, C. at fonnerre in France, circ. A.D. 440-
S. ERKONWOLD, B. of London and Ab. of Chertsea, A.D. 693.
S. HILDEOARD, Q. at Kempt en in Germany, A.D. 783.
S. SWIBERT, B. of fferden in Saxony, after A. 0.800.
SS. AMATOR, P.M., PETER AND Louis, MM. at Cordova, A.D. 8$$.
S. FORANNAN, Ab. ofWaulsor in Belgium, A.D. 982.
S. ADJUTOR, Mk. of Tvron, near fernon, in Normandy, circ. A.D. 1131.
S. GUALFARD, H. at Perona, A.D. ira^.
S. CATHARINE OF SIENNA, r.O.S.D. t A.D. 1380.
S. LUDWIG, Bay M. at Ravensburg, A.D. 1429.
S. MAXIMUS, M.
(ABOUT A.D. 250.)
[Modern Roman and several Latin Martyrologies. By the Greeks on
May i4th and March 6th. In some Latin Martyrologies on Sept. aSth.
Authority : The briet and genuine acts.]
IE very brief acts of this martyr do not state
further as to where he suffered than that it was
in Asia Minor, but an allusion in the acts to
Diana being the great goddess of the city caused
Baronius to conjecture that it was Ephesus, and as such he
inserted it in the Roman Martyrology. Maximus was first
beaten with clubs, then stretched on the rack, and was
finally stoned to death.
VOL. IV. 24
370 Lives of the Saints.
& EUTROPIUS, B.M.
(3RD CENT.)
[Roman and Galilean Martyrologies, and those of Usuardus, Ado,
Notker, &c. The acts of S. Eutropius pretend to have been written by S.
Denys of Paris, and sent by him to S. Clement of Rome. They are wholly
fabulous. The legend of S. Eutropius told by Peter de Natalibus, and
' popularly adopted at Saintes, is also most questionable. There can be
little question that S. Eutropius lived in the 3rd century, and not, as is
pretended, in the first, for in the catalogue of bishops of Saintes he occurs
as first, and the fourth in succession was Peter, who subscribed the council
of Orleans in 509. The mistake has arisen from S. Denys of Paris, who,
according to Gregory of Tours and Sulpicius Severus, came to Gaul in
205, being identified with S. Dionysius the Areopagite.j
THE visitor to the beautifully-situated city of Saintes in
the Saintonge cannot fail to admire the exquisite church of
S. Eutropius, with its marvellously rich early crypt, at the
east end of which a marble slab covers the tomb of the
patron Saint The body of S. Eutropius is gone, having been
torn from its shrine by the French revolutionists, but a
lamp bums perpetually in the gloomy crypt above the place
where for many centuries the apostle of the Saintonge lay.
Saintes was an ancient Roman city, as the numerous Roman
remains, especially the amphitheatre still extant, testify.
Hither, in the third century, came Eutropius, bearing the
light of revelation.
He had come from Rome with S. Denys, and now he
sought to bring the people of the beautiful city to the know-
ledge of the true God. We follow the Saintes tradition,
though we cannot place unqualified reliance in it The
people of Saintes repulsed the apostle, and would not suffer
him to dwell within their walls. Then he built himself
a hut outside the city, and preached to such as passed by.
Now it fell out that the governor had a daughter named
Eustella, who having heard the Word, believed with all her
heart And when her father heard it, he drave her from
*
_ *
April 3.] S. Marian, James, & Comp. 371
his house, and she lodged near the hovel of the man of
God. Then the governor full of wrath went forth with a
company of soldiers, and despatched Eutropius, striking
him on the head with an axe. And when he was dead
Eustella reverently buried him in the ground under the
hovel where he had lived. But in later ages S. Palladius,
Bishop "of Saintes, built a noble church over his tomb. Such
is the tradition. The false Acts throw back the whole story
to the ist century, and tell how Eutropius was the son of
Xerxes, king of Babylon, and how as a boy he was sent to
Jerusalem to be king Herod's page. He was present when
Christ fed the five thousand with the five loaves, and be-
lieved. When Christ rode into Jerusalem, he went before
strewing flowers and leaves. On the Feast of Pentecost he
received the Holy Ghost along with the apostles, and then
went with S. Simon and S. Thaddaeus to preach the Gospel
at Babylon ; there he converted his father and all his court,
and placed them under the care of bishop Abdias. He
witnessed and wrote the acts of the martyrdom of SS.
Simon and Thaddiseus, and then came to Rome and was
sent into Gaul by S. Clement. After which follows the story
given above. The Bollandists regard these Acts as so
utterly worthless that they have not even printed them.
SS. MARIAN, JAMES, AND COMR, MM.
(ABOUT A.D. 259.)
[Some of these martyrs are commemorated in ancient Latin Martyrolo-
gies on April apth, the rest on April soth. The Acts were written by a
contemporary, a friend, at the request of two of the martyrs, and himself
an eye-witness of their passion.]
THE writer of the acts of the martyrdom of these saints
was a friend and a relation of Marian and James, and he
. -*
372 Lives of the Saints. A P ru 3 o.
wrote his account at their request, "not to celebrate their
victory as vain boasting, but to leave an example to the
people of God, to justify their faith." The writer with
Marian and James were travelling in Numidia when they
came to Muguas, a place where persecution was then
raging, and where they saw two bishops, Agapius and
Secundinus, martyred. A large party of confessors were
then carried in chains to Cirta, followed by Marian and
James, who encouraged them to resist unto death. There-
upon they were also taken and tortured. James was a
deacon and had been a confessor in the persecution of Decius ;
Marian was a reader. The latter was hung up by his
thumbs with weights attached to his feet, and his body thus
extended was torn till the bowels were exposed and his sinews
broken. Then he was taken back to prison, where he was
comforted with a dream, in which he saw S. Cyprian in a
bright and pleasant land full of flowers and woods of
cypress and pine, and broad rich meadows, who dipped a
bowl into a fountain and gave the martyr to drink thereof.
James had been cheered with a vision the day before as he
fell asleep in the chariot. He had seen a youth in dazzling
white robe cast to him two purple belts and say, " Follow
me, one of these girdles is for thee, the other for Marian."
With them in prison was ^Emilian, a knight of fifty years of
age, who had ever kept himself in purity of body. In a
dream he saw a pagan friend approach him and ask if all
the martyrs would enjoy an equality of glory in heaven.
To him -iEmilian answered, "Look up at the sky and see
the stars with various brightness, so will it be with the
saints, as is their merit so will be their splendour/'
The martyrs were then sent to Lambessa, where were
extensive prisons, and the number of confessors was
immense. Every day the blood of some was shed, but
still the prisons were crowded. Amongst the martyrs was
April so.] S. Donatus. 373
a mother with her twin boys. One night James saw in
vision the bishop Agapius and the mother with her twin
sons. One of these little ones wore a necklace of roses,
and bore in his hand a palm of shining green. The child
came smiling towards him and said, "To-morrow thou
shalt sup with us." At length all the martyrs were ordered
out to execution, and were placed near a stream in a green
valley, in a long row, and the executioners struck off their
heads one after another, so that their blood ran down into
and mingled with the stream.
S. DONATUS, B. OF EVRCEA,
(ABOUT A.D. 387.)
[Greek Menology and Roman Martyrology. S. Donatus of Aretina
and S. Donatus of Eurcea lived at the same period, and consequently
there has arisen confusion in their respective histories, much that belongs
to the B. of Aretina has been transferred to the B. of Evroea. Authority :
Sozomen, lib. vii., c. 25.]
S. DONATUS is related to have killed a monstrous dragon,
"as big," says Sozomen, "as the great Indian serpent," at
Chamsezephyra in Evroea, of which he was bishop. He
spat in the dragon's mouth and slew it There can be
little question that S. Donatus has inherited the myth of
Apollo and Python, which lingered on in Epirus after it was
nominally conquered to Christ. The particulars given by
Sozomen of the fountain called forth by the saint when he
slew the dragon, leave no doubt on the mind that such is
the case.
*
374 Lives of the Saints. tApru 3 o
S. SEVERUS, B. OF NAPLES.
(5TH CENT.)
[Roman Martyrology ; a double feast at Naples. Authority : His life
written about the year 800, consequently not implicitly to be relied on.]
ACCORDING to the legend related of this bishop of Naples,
he called a dead man to life under peculiar circumstances ;
but as the life of Severus was not written till some four
hundred years after his death, we have not evidence upon
which we can rely to determine if it rests on any foundation
of truth. A man of Naples one day went to the bathing
establishment and forgot to take with him the usual fee to
the proprietor, an egg. 1 The bath-owner refused to let him
out till he paid, but at last the man promised solemnly to
send the fee directly he returned home, and was then allowed
to go. On reaching home he forgot his promise, and died a
few days after. The owner of the bath thereupon brought a
claim upon the widow for a large sum of money which he
pretended that the deceased had owed him, and the judge
ordered that, as the poor woman could not pay, she and her
children should be sold. The widow fled to S. Severus and
implored his assistance. He asked her if the deceased had
owed anything to the bath-owner. She replied that she
believed he had said something about owing him a trifle,
but contended that it was not a large sum. Then Severus
said, "The dead man himself shall give evidence." So he
gave his bell to the deacon and bade him run through
Naples and summon all men to the tomb, and he took his
staff and went thither himself. And when a crowd was gathered,
he prayed to God to make manifest the truth, and then he
called to the dead man to answer him truly, how much he
owed the bath-keeper. Then the corpse opened its eyes,
'Or perhaps a piece of money which from its form may have been commonly
called an egg, ovum.
o.] ,51 Erkonwold. 375
and rose and said, " I owe but one egg," then fell back
again and was rigid as before. The people gave a shout
and fell upon the bath-owner, and would have torn him to
pieces, had not the bishop protected him.
S. Severus erected many churches at Naples, amongst
others, one in the city, the apse of which he adorned with
mosaics representing Christ and the Apostles, and seated
Prophets beneath them, an interesting description of which
is given in the life of the Saint.
S. ERKONWOLD, B. OF LONDON.
(A.D. 693.)
[Roman Martyrology. The Salisbury Missal gives his Translation on
Nov. i4th. Authorities : Bede, lib. iv. c. 6 ; William of Malmesbury,
DC Pontif, lib. 2.3
S. ERKONWOLD was a brother of S. Ethelburga, for whom
he founded the convent of Barking, in Essex, whilst for
himself he built and endowed the abbey of Chertsey, in
Surrey, and became its abbot But S. Theodore, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, withdrew him from the cloister to
consecrate him to the bishopric of London. He died
about 693, at all events after 692, when he was engaged in
counselling Ina, king of the West Saxons, in drawing up
his laws. He was buried in the cathedral of S. Paul, and
his body was translated to a more honourable place in
the same cathedral on the i4th Nov., 1148.
S. HILDEGARD, Q.
(A.D. 733.)
EVeneraled at Kempten and S. Gall. Authority : The lives of Charle-
magne by Eginhardt, the monk of S. Gall, &c,]
CHARLEMAGNE was married five times. Beauty and
virtue guided his choice of a wife more than high birth.
376 Lives of the Saints. cA P rii 3 o.
After his divorce of Desiderata, a Lombard princess, he
wedded Hildegard, a Swabian. It is related that a servant
named Taland, enraged at the contempt with which she
treated his advances, accused her of infidelity to the
emperor, who divorced her also; upon which she retired to
Rome, where for some time she led a life of great sanctity,
and devoted frerself to the care of the sick, until happening
to meet with Taland, wandering about blind, she restored
him to sight, and the wretched man, struck with remorse,
confessed his crime, and led her back to her husband.
She became the mother of Charles, who died early, Pepin,
a young man of talents, who, after serving in several cam-
paigns, rebelled against his father, and died in prison.
Louis, the third son, unfortunately of weaker parts than his
brethren, was the only one who survived him.
& FORANNAN, AB. OF WAULSOR.
(A.D. 982.)
[Roman Martyrology and Belgian Martyrologies. Authority :- A life
based on tradition, and probably on some earlier documents, by Robert,
monk of Waulsor, in 1030. That it is founded on earlier accounts is
scarcely to be doubted, in that it fits in with the history of S. MachaHin
and S. Cadroe, both Irish abbots at Waulsor.]
THERE is no part at toe river Meuse so full of beauty as
at Waulsor; there the limestone rocks rise abruptly in
magnificent crags from the river, their ledges in spring
gardens of crimson pinks, blue viper-bugloss, and ox-eye
daisies. At intervals they fall back, and their woods feather
down to the water's edge. Immediately opposite Waulsor
opens a glen leading up to precipices, with a rill at the
bottom watering soft rich meadows. It is the "Vallis-decora"
of the Irish hermits who settled there in 947. S. MachaHin
-*
8. CATHARINE Of SIENNA. After Caluer. April 30.
April 3 . S. Catharine. 377
was the first to settle in this lovely and secluded spot. He
was succeeded in 950 by S. Cadroe, another Irishman,
who, however, in 954 or 955, removed to Metz, and was
succeeded by an abbot, whose name is unknown, but who
relaxed the severe discipline of the house.
Forannan was an Irishman of noble birth, who had been
consecrated bishop of Domnach-mor and Armagh, and it is
erroneously supposed by some to have been an archbishop
of Armagh. There was an archbishop of Armagh of his name,
but he was expelled from Armagh by the Danes, and died in
862. Feeling an impulse to go out of his native isle, like
so many of his fellow saints and countrymen, S. Forannan
went with twelve companions to the sea shore, and according
to a popular legend, as they could not procure a boat, they
made a large wooden cross, cast it into the sea, and stand-
ing on that were wafted across to the Flemish shore.
Probably they built a raft laid on beams, which were dis-
posed cross-wise. Then he made his way to Waulsor, and
became its fourth abbot. He is said to have made a jour-
ney to Rome to obtain the confirmation of his monastery.
He died at Waulsor on the $oth of April, 982. His relics
are preserved in the church there, and amongst them is his
very curious stole, wherewith he is said to have cured the
bite of a rnad dog.
S. CATHARINE OF SIENNA, V.
(A.D. 1380.)
[Roman and Dominican Martyrologics. Canonized by Pius II., in 1461,
and her day appointed for April 29th ; but on the revision of the Breviary
by Clement VIII,, the festival was transferred to April soth. Authority:
Her life written by her confessor, Fr. Raymond of Capua, Master of the
Order of Preachers.]
IN the street deFOca, at Sienna, is a house of humble
appearance, at the side of which is a little chapel that
*
378 Lives of the Saints. cA P rii 3 o.
attracts many pilgrims. This house in the beginning of the
1 4th century was the habitation of a dyer named Giacomo
di Benincasa. The dyer's wife was named Lapa Piagenti,
a pious woman, by whom he became the father of a large
family, amongst other children, of Catharine, the subject of
this memoir. At the age of five this child manifested a
great devotion to Our Lady, and would kneel on each step
of the stairs in her home, and recite on each a "Hail
Mary." When six years old she was returning from the
house of one of her married sisters, when she beheld a
vision of our Lord in glory seated in the midst of his
Apostles. Her little brother, Stephen, who was with her,
dragged at her hand, and asked her to come along. Then
starting as out of sleep, she exclaimed, "Oh, brother! If
you saw what I see, you would never care to leave this
spot."
From the moment the child's vocation was fixed she
devoted herself entirely to the life of prayer and contem-
plation. When of a marriageable age she cut off all her
beautiful hair and veiled her head, to the great annoyance
of her parents, who desired to see her married and settled.
They sent her to the kitchen, and made her work there,
and deprived her of her little room, in which she had lived
as in a convent cell.
She remained patiently submissive, but was not shaken
in her resolve to enter religion. At kst her father yielded
to her determination, and allowed her to assume the habit
of the Sisters of Penitence, in connexion with the Order of
S. Dominic. As she entered on womanhood she was
assailed with the most horribly impure thoughts and images,
which her imagination presented to her. The agony she
suffered was great, as she wrestled against her temptations
to yield to these horrible thoughts. Once, after such a
trial, she was conscious of the presence of our Blessed Lord.
*-
* -
3 oj ,5*. Catharine. 379
" my Saviour, my Lord, why didst Thou forsake me ?"
she cried. " My child," He answered, " I have been with
thee through all" "What, my Lord ! in the midst of these
vile thoughts and foul imaginations T " My child, yes, I
was in thy heart all the while, for thy will did not consent
to the thoughts and images presented to thee."
She suffered from ingratitude in the exercise of charity.
She was charged with attendance on a woman, whose
breast was consumed by cancer ; and the unhappy creature,
so far from feeling thankful to her nurse, poured out on
her all the spite of a naturally vicious tongue, rendered
more irritable by pain. She met with similar treatment
from others.
But however loathsome the disease, and ungrateful the
patient, Catharine was the same, gentle and forgiving, serving
Jesus Christ in the person of the poor, looking for no
return save His love. And He whom she served filled her
mind so completely that she saw Him in frequent visions.
On one occasion He appeared to her holding a crown of
pure gold in one hand, and a crown of thorns in the other,
and asked her which she would choose. Without a mo-
ment's hesitation, she stretched out her hand to the thorny
diadem, and placed it on her head. On another occasion,
she hud given her only remaining ornament, a little silver
cross, to a beggar, and at night she dreamt that Christ
stood before her, and raising the silver cross to her eyes,
said that on the Last Day He would shew that cross she
had given Him to angels and men. In another vision He
appeared to her with His heart in His hand, and He placed
it against her side, saying, "I exchange My heart with
thine." This strange and somewhat questionable vision is
sufficient to teach us that too great caution cannot be
observed in admitting the visions of ecstatic saints. 1
Some of the visions arc far more startling, some are peculiarly offensive.
. T ,
380 Lives of the Saints. [A P ra 30 .
*
Catharine played an important part in the public affairs
of her age. A league had been formed against the Holy
See, at the head of which were the people of Florence.
Catharine, charged with negociating peace, visited Pope
Gregory XL, at Avignon, and was effectual in restoring the
pope to Rome. Gregory was anxious to return, but feared
displeasing his court He consulted Catharine, who an-
swered, " Do as you have promised God."
The pope, who had not told any one that he had in
fact made a vow to return to Rome, saw that this must
have been revealed to Catharine. When she left Avignon,
she wrote him several letters to urge him to execute his
promise; and he followed her counsel on the i3th of
September, 1376. After having pacified the Church, she
continued her project of pacifying Italy; she went to
Florence, then a scene of murders and confiscations, and,
at the risk of her life, strove to calm the violence of party
strife ; and in 1378 she succeeded in reconciling Florence
to the Holy See. But the same year saw great calamities
befall the Church, to the great grief of the saint. On the
death of Gregory XL, Urban VI. was elected, but the
French cardinals declared his election void, and named
another, Clement VII., and retired with him to Avignon.
Catharine wrote to the cardinals remonstrating; she wrote
to the kings and queens of Europe, to obtain their adhesion
to Urban VI. ; she encouraged the latter at the same time
that she rebuked him for his harshness. Urban sent ior
her to Rome that he might have her at hand to advise
him; but her life was closing, her infirmities increased,
and she prepared for death. The closing scee was one
of struggle. For a long time she lay evidently engaged in
self-communing, and self-accusation, her face expressing the
anguish of her soul. Once she flung her hands up and
cried, "Holy God! I have sinned, have mercy on mei"
, Catharine. 381
Then for a while was silent, and then broke out again in
prayers for forgiveness. This was followed by silence, her
face continuing to be clouded and troubled; but all at once
she exclaimed, " No, I have not sought vainglory, but
only the glory and praise of God I" and her face cleared,
and serenity returned to her soul.
She died in Rome, and was buried in the Church of the
Minerva. Her head was carried to Sienna, and some
^ bones to Paris, but these latter were lost in the Revolution
'Of 1793.
In Art she appears with the crown of thorns on her head,
or receiving a ring from Christ, c-r exchanging hearts with
Our Lord.
S. LUDWIG, BOY M.
(A.D. 1429.)
[Venerated in Swabia. Authority : The "Helvetia Sacra," of Henry
Murer, who derived it from two chronicles, one in the monastery of
Oeningen, the other sent him from Ravensburg.]
THIS is another of the stories of children murdered by
Jews. Ludwig was the son of a Swiss living at Ravensburg,
in Wurtembcrg, named Von Bruck, who was intimately
acquainted with several Jews residing there. A great feast
being held at Ravensburg by the Jews, at Easter, 1429,
their co-religionists assembled from Constance and Ueber-
lingen. The little boy found his way into the kitchen of
the Jew's house, and served there as scullion. Two
Hebrews, Aaron and Anselm, ascertaining that he was a
Christian, and not a native of the place, agreed with
another Jew, named Moses, to murder him. This they
did, and then bribed a driver to convey the body in a sack
xo the wood of Haslach, where a great number of Jews
*were ready to receive it They drew the body out of the
*
Lives, of the Saints.
[April 30.
sack, and hung it to a tree, 'and began to stab it with their
knives. The 'body having afterwards been found, and the
popular voice having accused the Jews^lhe driver confessed
what he had done, and was broken dri the wheel, and a
number of Jews, Aaron, Anselm, and Moses included,
were burnt alive. The relics of the murdered boy are
preserved in the chapel of S. Vitus, on the mountain south
of Ravensburg.
Choir of 8 Mark Seep 3d*.
Printed by BALLANTYNK, HANSON * Co,
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